The Past Never Forgets
by 0u812
Summary: A visitor with a connection to Emma comes to Storybrooke and brings another old friend along. But what is so important that he needed to find Emma over a decade later? And what will this mean for the future of Storybrooke? High amounts of Charming family interactions and feels. Rated T for language. Set after S4A.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi Everyone! Well this is my first OUAT fic and my first published on this site. I typically do not like to publish a story before I have it completed, because I don't like to leave people hanging with an unfinished story. But I have been struggling with whether or not this story is worth continuing so I decided to post it in progress. I am hopeful that if reviews are good the writers block will stay away. And if suggestions inspire me, I'll probably write them in. So without further ado, please enjoy Chapter 1. Let me know if I should continue or not.**

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Chapter 1 – 5:00 AM

Five o'clock in the morning. Who the hell could be knocking on the door at 5:00 in the morning? It had to be a dream. No one in their right mind would have come calling at such an early time. The apartment was dark; the sun wasn't even attempting to rise yet on the cold February morning. I still had another two hours before I had to be up and getting ready for work and I was enjoying my bed. I rolled over and snuggled further under the covers. There was nothing better than a warm feather bed and a down comforter in the cold of winter. I had never had either until my mother introduced me to them. I guess feather bedding was a very common occurrence in the enchanted forest.

There it was again, a definite knock at the door. This time it was louder and more determined. I heard someone scrambling to make it to the door before my little brother was awoken. Neal was finally getting to the point where he was sleeping for at least five hours at a time during night, but still, if he was asleep then the underlying goal was to keep him asleep. The footsteps were heavy, too heavy for Mary Margaret, so that only left David. It was Henry's week to stay with Regina, maybe it was him who was knocking? I shook my head at the thought and gave a slight laugh. Who was I kidding; a team of wild horses couldn't get that kid moving before 7:00 am. He was a teenager after all.

"Someone's idea of a bad joke," I mumbled to myself as I rolled over once again to hear a little more clearly.

I strained my ears to listen to the voices, downstairs. They were definitely male; one voice was David; without a doubt; and the other was deep and baritone. It wasn't a voice that I could immediately recognize. David must have warned him to keep his voice low. Had it not been so cold that morning, I might have pulled myself out of bed to get a better vantage point to hear the conversation. Soon I heard the door closed, but there were no footsteps. That meant that David had stepped out into the hallway. No, this was not good. A visitor at 5 AM and dad went out into the hallway with him. Damn it. Time to get up and check it out.

As I stepped onto the cold hardwood floor, I reached for a hair tie to pull my long locks into a messy ponytail. I descended the stairway as quietly as I could; I would like to say that it was to ensure that my brother stayed asleep, but honestly I was hoping to hear some of the conversation on the other side of the door. As I approached the door, I listened for another second before opening it. I poked my head out. I was still in my flannel pajamas and no stranger needed to see anymore than my head.

"Dad?" I said as I looked the stranger up and down, "Is everything ok?"

The guy was tall with light brown hair and dark eyes. He was dressed in jeans and a navy blue wool coat. No hat or gloves, which seemed odd for February in Maine.

I didn't miss the look of confusion or was it disbelief on the stranger's face when I called David "dad." The way he put his eyebrows together and glanced between the two of us begged for an explanation. But I was not willing to give one at the moment.

"Everything is fine, go back inside, I'll be right in."

I heard the sternness in my father's voice, followed by the look. You know the look, right? The one that says don't question me. I was starting to learn. I had a tendency to pull the 'I'm an adult' card. But there were times when I just knew that I better do as I was told. And this was one of those times. And with it being 5 am, I wasn't awake enough to argue.

I found it strange that David didn't call me by my name or even one of his little pet names that he had for me. Names that I was still trying to get used to hearing. Usually a sentence like that would have included Emma or sweetheart. That was always his way of sugar coating the command. No this was different. There was a reason he didn't say my name. He didn't want that guy to know me. Why?

I looked at my father with skepticism one last time before closing the door. He didn't say another word to me, he just nodded. You know, the kind of nod that says, "get going."

I made my way to the kitchen to put on a batch of hot chocolate. Most people liked coffee in the morning, but this family was a group of hot chocolate lovers. Don't get me wrong, coffee was good, but our serious conversations were done over hot chocolate with cinnamon. And a serious conversation was what was coming, as soon as that father of mine came back through the door. There was no way that I was going to let him brush off anything that just happened.

"Who was that?" I asked as soon as I heard the door open. I didn't bother to turn around and look, there was only one person coming through the door.

"Someone looking for directions," he responded.

I let out a breath. Was he really going to try that with me? I spun around and pointed my wooden spoon in his direction shaking it like a mother scolding her child. "At 5 AM? And I suppose he left his map with you?" I saw the paper in his hand. "What is that?" I asked, sending a pointed look to his hand.

He gave a heavy sigh and turned toward the kitchen island. I pushed his mug of hot chocolate towards his hands, and then generously added whipped cream and cinnamon to both mugs.

"So are you going to tell me? Or do I need to drag it out of you?" I prompted. He had to give in sooner or later. He knows how I feel about keeping secrets from loved ones. Especially since I blatantly told him as much the day my little brother was born. I needed to go after Zelena and I argued with him about taking Hook with me.

_"He's going with you. You're going with her."_

_**"** Mm, I thought you didn't trust me, mate."_

_"Zelena backed you into a corner. You did the best you could."_

_" See? Even you're father gets it."_

_" Yeah, because he knows about keeping secrets from loved ones."_

The argument was still so vivid in my mind, I'm sure that people would say that I sounded like a spoiled teenager that day. But that was ok, because I didn't need Hook getting in the way of what I had to do. It turned out that my dad won, hook went with me, and I ended up temporarily losing my magic that day. But that was neither here nor there. I got my point across regardless.

"Are you my daughter or my wife?" I didn't miss the sarcasm. Maybe being a smart ass was an inherited trait. "He was looking for you?" he finally admitted.

"Me? Who the hell is he?" I certainly had no idea who this man was or what on earth he would want so damn early in the morning. "What does he want with me?"

"He refused to tell me." David ran his hand through his hair and rested it on the back of his neck. "I told him that you were not here…"

"And then I came to the door" I interrupted.

"Yeah. I don't know, it was all a little weird. He didn't seem to let on that he thought or knew that I was lying. He gave me this and asked me to give to you when I saw you next. " He handed me the envelope that was in his hand. It was a plain white letter sized envelope with the initials E.S. scribbled on the front.

"Ok, let me get this straight. A strange man knocks on our door at five in the morning. You answer it and he asks for me. To which you tell him that I'm not here. He gives you this envelope to give to me and then goes on his merry way? Yeah. That all sounds a little too farfetched. He didn't tell you his name or anything? Where he was from? Why the hell is was here at 5 AM? Nothing?"

"No, I asked him all of those questions," David responded. "He refused to give me any answers. He just insisted that I take the envelope and give it to you."

"And you took it?" it wasn't a question.

"No actually, I told him no. He dropped it on the ground and left."

I reached for a knife from the drawer to slice open the envelope. I rose an eyebrow to my father "did he question why I called you Dad?" David shook his head as I reached into the envelope and pulled out a piece of notebook paper. Hand written on the paper was a simple note, WE NEED TO TALK, MEET ME AT THE DOCKS AT 8:30. –J.C.

"Oh. Hell no…" I heard my father pant.

"Who the hell is J.C.?" I asked more to myself than David.

"I don't know, and you sure as hell aren't finding out!" he answered.

"Whoa, hold on there, Dad. As the sheriff in this town, I need to investigate this guy. If he needs to talk to me, then he isn't going to leave town without at least having one conversation. "

"He had one conversation."

"Not with you, Dad! You know what I mean."

"No, not happening." David was fervently shaking his head. "You are not talking to this guy until I get some answers. "

"Because he was so willing to answer your questions five minutes ago. No. I will meet him and I'll get the answers." It wasn't a request. I was going to do this, if for no other reason than my interest being peaked.

"No, you are not going down there by yourself. I'm going with you."

"Dad… do you…"

"No arguments. You may be the sheriff, but I'm still your father and I don't trust anybody who comes to my house at five in the morning, with a letter for my daughter that just says meet me at the docks. Nope. No way. Not happening. You are not going alone." I had to smile at his over protective Daddy mode. "Or unarmed!" he said with finality.

David got up and walked to his bedroom before I could say another word; no doubt getting ready to wake my mother and report all that had just happened. I was left at the kitchen island with only my thoughts and a half empty mug of hot chocolate. I ran the man's image over and over in my mind. I was starting to think that there was something familiar about him, but I just couldn't place my finger on it. Who did I know whose name or initials were J.C.? So many people had come in and out of my life in the last thirty years that there was no possible way to remember each and every person that I had ever met or spent time. No, there was only one way to get to the bottom of this mystery. I guess I had a meeting at the docks at 8:30.


	2. Chapter 2 - Lesson in Love

**Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, marked as a favorite, or added an alert to my story. Your support means alot. And is very inspirational. But I also wanted to say, that this story may not always follow the explicit details of the show. And that is just the way that is going to be. On that note, enjoy Chapter 2 as I begin to write Chapter 3! Thanks again for all of the wonderful support.**

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Chapter 2 - Lesson in Love

I followed my father's example and went back to my bedroom. If I was being honest with myself, I would have to admit that this morning's events had put me a little on edge. And I don't react well to anxiety. I crashed down on my bed wracking my brain. As a kid growing up in the foster system so many different people weaved in and out of my life. There was one span of about a year and a half that I was moved around to thirteen different homes. It made it impossible to make any lasting friendships, let alone remember all of the kids and adults that I had lived with at any point in my life. I tried to remember anyone that I may have ever met with initials J.C. but I just couldn't come up with anything.

At some point, I must have fallen back to sleep because some time later I was roused by the gentle shaking of my shoulder. Lying on my stomach with my faced turned toward the window I opened one eye to see my mother kneeling beside my bed. Daylight was now fully upon us and as the sunshine poured through the window it put a slight golden glow around my mother's small figure.

"What?" was all that I was able to croak out followed by a yawn.

She reached up and pushed some of my hair out of my face and gave me a slight smile. "Why don't you get up and come down for some breakfast?"

I looked at the clock, "7:48? Shit." I pushed myself off of the bed and began rushing to get dressed. I had to get to the docks by 8:30 but I still had to stop at the station. In my haste, I paid no attention to my mother who had taken up residence on my bed intently watching me flit about the room. I started to do a mental checklist of everything that I needed to do. It wasn't until I heard my mother repeat "meet at the docks" that I realized that I was reciting my checklist aloud.

"Emma," she started.

"Mother," I chastised quickly cutting her off.

"Emma, sit."

I shot her a look that she apparently didn't like. Because she swiftly got up to close the door and stood in front of it to block any attempt I made to leave the room. She simply pointed to the bed. Seriously? Was she really going to pull the 'I'm your mother' act. I guess so, because when my eyes met hers, I ducked my head and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Where's Dad?" sure it was a sad attempt at deflection, but it was all that I had at the moment.

"He's downstairs. Waiting for you. He thought that you two could go to the station early, to work out a game plan. But when you fell back to sleep, we decided to let you get your rest."

I sucked in a breath. I could read between the lines. That statement meant one thing, "so instead, you two worked out the plan together, and now we're playing a game of 'tell Emma what she's going to do'."

"So perceptive" she shot back.

"I don't have time for this," I rebutted as I made a move toward my mother. I had no problem with pushing her out of the way. I had someplace that I needed to be and she was not going to stop me.

"Sit," I suddenly heard my father bellow from the hallway. Damn, these two were getting this parenting thing down. And when did I become a person who obeyed parental figures? My mother opened the door wide enough for me to see my father's strong frame blocking the doorway. I guess that would be the day that I found parents to obey and love. Ok. Well maybe I had a problem pushing him out of the way. Unless I used magic, he surely overpowered me.

"Emma, we have no delusions about what you are or are not going to do. We know you well enough to know that you are going to the docks," he started.

"Good, get out of my way then!" I grabbed my keys from the nightstand and headed for the door.

But I ran straight into my father's hands that he put up to block my escape, "oh, we're not done here."

I took a step back and crossed my arms in annoyance. As I let out a heavy sigh and rolled my eyes, I glanced over to the clock, it was 8:03. I looked down at the floor willing myself to not say anything. Arguing would just further delay my mission, it was best to just let him get through his speech.

"You made a good point this morning," he started again.

Whoa. What? I looked up at him quickly. I wasn't expecting that; I'm not sure that my eyes could have gotten much wider.

"That man only wanted to talk to you. But I still have reservations about you going there alone. So we decided…" this time I gave him the look. The adult child to parent look that said 'you can decided all you want, I'm doing this my way' and he quickly changed his wording "…we thought we should set up a safety net, of sorts."

"A safety net?" What the hell did he mean by a safety net?

"Contingency plan" he corrected. I raised an eyebrow at him as he continued. "You know as well as I do that is not safe situation to walk into without some kind of backup. So I have Grumpy positioning the dwarfs to predetermined positions. I'll be in the truck parked someplace close by where I can see you, but you or more importantly he will not see me. So if you need help for any reason I'll be right there."

I couldn't disagree with the logic or the plan. It was well thought out, and he was giving me the space that I needed to meet with this man; to let him think that he had the upper hand.

"So do you have a signal in mind that I'll flash to let you know to move in?" I should have known by the look on his face that the other shoe was about to drop. Or the wire tap, in this case, that was dropped into my hands.

"You want me to wear a wire? Are you insane?!" I tossed the wire back at him. I wasn't going to wear that stupid thing. First of all, it was from the 1980's and there was no place to position it discretely. Second of all, the damn thing was from the 1980's! It probably didn't even work.

My mother shook her head as she looked down at the floor. "You went along with this?" I directed at her. She raised her hands as if to say that she had nothing to do with it. If I know her, it was something that she tried to talk him out of using, but failed miserably. Yeah, just another fine example of the fact that stubbornness runs in the family; abundant on both sides of the family tree.

"Emma…"

I crossed my arms and sent him a daring glare. "No. Forget it. I am not wearing a wire. He requested a meeting with me, not the other way around. He must know that I am the sheriff and that not only am I armed, but I have my radio with me. I have nothing to hide from this guy. How about this; how 'bout if I decide that I need your help, I'll wave a nice hand gesture your way. Will that work?"

I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. What the hell was I thinking? Or was that the problem, I wasn't thinking. My anxiety level was soaring and it apparently turned off my brain to mouth filter. My father's face turned an instant dark shade of red. In the short time that we have been together as a family, I can't remember ever pushing him this far.

"Just call me on the radio," he huffed and stormed down the stairs. I looked at my mother, hoping to gauge how much damage I had just done. She just raised her eyebrows at me, looked toward the door, and shook her head. And I knew what that reaction meant. Sometimes I just had to wonder what the hell was going through my father's head. Yeah, bad reasoning. Ok. I get it. I'm his daughter. He only wants to protect me and make sure that I'm safe. But come on, there has to be some level of confidence in me. Right?

"Dad!" I called out running after him. I found him downstairs by the door. He already had on his coat and hat; he was just fishing for his gloves. It was February and a weather alert had just buzzed my phone. But now was not the time to worry about snow falling.

"Dad," my plea was laced with contrition. I was hoping to at least gain his attention as I made my way to him. He turned away but reached for my coat.

He held it open for me so that I could slip it on easier, living up to his Prince Charming moniker, "Come on, we have a schedule to keep." That was all that he said before he opened the door for me and I walked through. Well I guess it wasn't a complete shun. He did at least talk to me and help with my coat.

This was the first time, since I have known my father, that he has ever let it show when I have hurt him. And I know too well that I have done other things that have hurt him or gotten him upset. But this was different. This I wasn't sure that I could fix. I shouldn't have had to fix it though, because quite simply, I shouldn't have said it. He quickly but quietly moved passed me on the stairs leaving me to follow him to the truck.

After a quick stop at the station to pick up the radios, we made our way to the docks. The trip started in a tense silence. It was just me and him. I needed try again. "Dad, I'm…"

"I have Grumpy and the other dwarfs positioned in a wide circle around the rendezvous point," he interrupted. I put my head down and looked away. There was no other way to describe it, I felt like a heel. "I will be parked behind the cannery. I should be able to see you but I will be hidden from your direct view. I thought that bringing the truck would be less conspicuous than the squad car. So hopefully he won't be looking for the sting; if it comes to it. There won't be any direction that he can run that will not be covered."

"Do you really think that he is going to try something?"

"I don't know, but I'm not taking any chances." David pulled the truck up beside the cannery and put it in park. It seemed that our guy was not there yet, so we had a couple of minutes. I expected him to turn and look at me, but he didn't. He just stared straight ahead. I'm not sure if he was really looking at he harbor or just trying hard to not look at me. But, regardless, this was my opportunity. I had to take it.

"Dad, I'm really sorry. I have no idea who this guy is or why he showed up at five in the morning to talk to me. I didn't want to admit it, but I am a little rattled." I waited for him to do something. Anything would have been better than the silence. Yell at me. Scream at me. Say something. Anything.

In what seemed like minutes but was really only seconds he finally started to talk, "Let me tell you a secret. Kids get mad at their parents. Parents get mad at their kids. And there is no such thing as a perfect relationship between a parent and their child."

I fixed my eyes on him but he didn't take his stare off of the harbor as he continued to talk. "You have survived a lot in your young life, no thanks to me. And I get it. I understand that in your first 28 years you developed a defense mechanism to emotionally protect yourself and it is not easily turned off. But I will never apologize for trying to keep my kids safe. You and your brother are the most precious people in my world, and you may be 31 years old, but you are still my kid and you are not invincible." He caught me off guard when he quickly put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him planting a kiss on the side of my head. "No matter what you do, you will not push me away. So get used to, kid; because I love you and I don't plan on changing anytime soon."

I slipped my arms around his waste and held him tight. "I'm so sorry, Dad." In that moment, he knew. We both knew. I wasn't just apologizing for a temper tantrum that I threw 20 minute ago. I was apologizing for every thing that I have done in the passed 3 1/2 years to push him away, piss him off, or just plain blame him. I closed my eyes and relished his strong embrace as I let him hold me there for another minute. I felt him press another kiss to the side of my head.

"Wait a minute..." I pushed myself way from him and furrowed my brow. "This whole silent treatment thing, was that some way of teaching me a lesson?"

He flashed his charming grin at me, "Did it work?"

Yeah it worked. I got the message, I can sling my worst at him and in the end not only he can take but he will still love me. I narrowed my eyes at him then looked way right before I came back and threw a playful punch at his shoulder. Yep, he was definitely getting this parenting thing down.


	3. Chapter 3 - JC

**Thank you, again, to everyone who is reading my story. As always, keep the reviews coming. It is the best inspiration.**

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Chapter 3 – J.C.

"Well, looks like our guy has arrived," I followed my father's gaze over to the bench that sat at the edge of the pier. I felt him squeeze my hand, but I couldn't pull my eyes away from the man sitting on the bench. "Are you ready?" he asked.

I slowly nodded my head while trying to contemplate the upcoming conversation with this stranger. "Yeah, I've got this." I answered as I reached for the door handle to let myself out of the truck, "Time to get some answers."

I held up the radio to my dad's view, "I'll call if I need you." He gave me a reassuring smile and I tucked the radio into the pocket of my coat. I slowly made my way over to the bench surveying my surroundings as I went. Although there were a lot of places for someone to hide, it was important to take notice of anyone who many have been around and in view of our meeting.

The guy stared out over the harbor watching the fishing boats just off of the shoreline. His back was toward me, so it seemed that I had the advantage. Or so I would like to think. I stopped just short of ten feet from him. A short enough distance that I could talk and he could hear me, but far enough distance that he couldn't immediately grab at me.

"I'm here," I yelled. "You want to tell me what this is all about?"

"I wasn't sure that you would come," he yelled back as he stood up and slowly turned around. I watched him as he looked me up and down. I could tell that he was trying to take in every inch of my 5'7" stature. Once his eyes caught my face, he cocked his head to the side and small knowing smile crossed his lips. He blinked his eyes slowly and nodded. It was the kind of look that a person would give to another person whom they hadn't seen in years and was amazed to have seen how they have grown. But actually, it was kind of creepy.

"Well, I did." Oh yeah, the annoyance was high gear. "So, you want to tell me who you are, J.C.?" I dragged out the letters JC for emphasis.

"I knew that was you this morning," he said shaking his index finger in my direction."Has it been that long?" he asked.

Damn it, this guy woke me up at 5 AM and dragged me out into the cold just to be cryptic? I did not have the patience for this today. We needed to speed this along.

"Ok. Buddy, that's it…" I pulled my gun out and aimed straight for his chest. "Start talking, who the hell are you and what do you want with me?"

His hands quickly went up in the air. A look of panic spread across his face. "Super Swan, come on, you really don't remember me?"

I kept my gun on him. But then the realization of who he was hit me like a ton of bricks. "Super Swan," I repeated. "Nobody has call me that since…since"

"Since you we're sixteen?" he finished the sentence for me. I took a couple of steps closer, it couldn't have been him. But it was him. Standing in front of me was the man who put it all in motion for me. The man who made it easy for me to run and never look back, the man that put me on the path that eventually led to Neal and to my family.

I lowered my gun and tucked it back into the waistline of my jeans. Tears were pricking the back of my eyelids as I tried so hard to hold them back. I ran to him and engulfed him in a long tight hug. I went at him so hard that I practically jumped into his arms. "Justin," I cried as I held onto him as tight as I could. I just couldn't will my arms to let him go. "I never thought that I would see you again."

"You, Emma Swan, are a hard person to find," he let out a little chuckle as he held me just as tight. I felt him kiss the side of my head as the hot tears steadily streamed down my face.

Justin Cooper, JC for short, was my foster brother from the last house that I lived in before I ran away from the system. That house was one of the worst places that I ever lived during my tenure in foster care. If it weren't for JC I probably would have died at that house. JC was Mr. Cooper's biological son and, like many foster homes before his, I was just the meal ticket. All foster families receive a stipend for taking in kids. And quite honestly I never understood the how some of the family's qualified to take in a foster child.

"Emma," I heard my father's voice crackle over the radio. "What's going on?" I pulled away from JC to answer his call. I had completely forgotten that my father was sitting in the truck watching everything that was happening.

"Everything is fine. I'll explain it all in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, you can call off the perimeter watch." I called back to him.

"Ok," my dad seemed unsure, I heard it in his voice, but he didn't question. "I'll make my rounds to the guys then swing back to you."

"So, who was that?" I heard JC ask from behind. "Was that the guy that you're living with? The one that you called 'dad'?" Yeah, he put the emphasis on the word dad.

Knowing that I knew the truth about this town and that an outsider would never believe it, I could only imagine the look that was on my face when I spun around to look at him. "Yeah, about that…" I started.

JC threw his arms up in defense, "Hey, I'm not judging. What you do in your personal life…"

"Eeew, NO!" Now that time, I'm sure my face showed nothing but a look of disgust. I shoved him out of my way and went to sit down on the bench. And like any good big brother, he added a little drama to his backward stumble.

"JC, my life…" Oh God, I did not know how to have this conversation with him. JC was a guy that I could tell anything without judgments. He would just listen and accept what I had to say at face value. But in this world, how do you go about telling someone, even someone like JC, that you are actually the biological child of fairytale characters, Snow White and Prince Charming to be exact. Surprise! They're real. "…my life has changed a lot since the last time that you saw me."

"Oh yeah, tell me! You sure look like it has treated you well. Well, after our house, of course."

"Ok. A lot of this is going to be very hard to explain so for right now I'm just going to give you the basics and I need to you to just believe me. Please do not push me to answer questions that I know you are going to have, just be patient. Around here, seeing is believing, and there are things that you need to see before you will ever believe. So in time you will get the full story, but in the meantime please just trust that what I say is true, and leave it at that. Can you do that for me?" I knew it was a lot to ask. But I didn't know of any other way.

"Yeah, yeah. I promise. " He answered as he sat down beside me. "I got it, patience. You know, I never questioned you before," he gave me a wink and nudged my shoulder, "why would I start now." I smiled at him. I couldn't believe how much I actually missed him. I guess it was one of those times that you don't realized you missed somebody until they're suddenly back in your life.

"Yeah, patience," I repeated with a sigh. "So here it goes, that guy David. He is my biological father and his wife, Mary Margaret, is my biological mother." He didn't say anything, but I knew that he was having a little trouble processing such a young looking guy being my father. "Yeah, they have aged really well. I have a son that is 13 and a little brother who is about eight months old." I stopped there, I could see him trying to do the calculations in his head and trying to figure it all out. Again, he didn't say anything. He just listened. I looked down at my hands and started to pick at my fingers. It was a nervous habit that I had.

"So what are you doing here, how did you find me? How did you even find Storybrooke? This place usually doesn't find its way onto maps." Yes, a change of subject was definitely in order. Plus we still had to get to the root of the matter. "Or better yet, why the hell were you knocking on my door at 5:00 in the damn morning?"

"Yeah, sorry about that; I probably could have planned that better, but in all fairness I wasn't expecting your dad to answer the door. And, believe me when I say that it took forever to find you. When I finally did find where you were, I learned that it was just as hard to find this town and actually get to you. Once I figured it out, I drove here a couple of times from Boston with my girlfriend. But I thought that if I showed up at 5 AM on February 2, then you would put it all together. That you would remember. "

"February 2 at 5 am. You expected me to be coherent enough at 5AM to remember you and a plan that we concocted 15 years ago? What the hell?" At that early of a time, I was lucky if I could remember what I had for dinner the night before and he wanted me to put together clues from something that happened when I was sixteen years old. I twisted my head to crack my neck hoping to relieve some of the tension that was quickly causing me to have a headache.

"A bit of a long shot, I guess?" he shrugged.

"Yeah, just a little. But that still doesn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"

He looked around. I didn't know if he was just trying to stall or if he expected someone to be watching us, but suddenly I felt a bit of nervousness radiating off of him. "This isn't really the place that we should be talking about this. Is there somewhere we can go that is a little more private, and warmer?"

"Wait a minute; you're the one who requested to meet on the docks!"

"That was only because I knew that you wouldn't meet someone that you thought to be a stranger in any place that wasn't public."

"Touché." I had to hand it to him. He had always been a very perceptive person and at times, I think he knew me better than I knew myself.

"Emma," I heard my father call from behind. We both turned to see him walking at a fast pace toward us. I stood and walked toward my father, quickly shortening the distance between us. David instinctively put a protective right arm around my waist pulling me close to him. His eyes never strayed from JC; the most they did was suspiciously look him up and down.

"Dad, I want you to meet someone." I held my hand out to JC inviting him closer. "This is Justin Cooper, JC. He was my foster brother in the last house that I was placed." I felt David tighten his grip around my waist, pulling me even closer. "I think that it is safe to say, that if it weren't for JC, I wouldn't be here right now."

The look of fear and sorrow cascaded my father's face. I could tell that he was holding back tears. He let go of me and reached his right hand out to JC. "I guess, then, I should be thanking you for taking care of her at a time when I could not."

I shot David a faux look of being offended. "Hey. You never thanked Neal for taking care of me."

"You're lucky that I didn't punch Neal in the face." I saw JC take a step back. I had to stifle a laugh. But that was Prince Charming for you, putting the fear of God in anyone who came near his daughter, intentional or not. "Besides, I wouldn't exactly call what he did, 'taking care of you.'"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes. I knew that my father was being honest and Neal was lucky that he didn't punch him in the face. I also knew that my father didn't hold a grudge against him either. Neal gave his life for me and this town, and my parents respected him for that act of heroism.

"Hey, we named your brother after him, is that enough for you?"

JC stood there and just watched the playful banter that occurred between me and my father. I could tell what he was thinking, he was happy for me. This time I put my left arm around my dad's waist and as I laid my head on his shoulder I reached my right hand up to his heart. I had never showed this type of affection toward either of my parents in public before, and although I knew that it took David by surprise, he didn't let it show. But the gesture wasn't meant for David, it was meant for JC. JC had known the horrible truth and he needed to know that I was ok. But I also knew that JC needed more than just the words to come out of my mouth. JC knew that it was always hard for me to express my emotions. So, this was my way of silently showing him that my life now was what I had wanted, that I was safe, and loved. "Dad, we were just about to move this conversation to the station, would you like to join us?"

He smiled down at me and put his arm around my shoulders, "What do you say to moving it to the apartment? I'm sure your mother would like to meet JC."


	4. Chapter 4 - Confessions

**First of all, let me say you all are awesome. Thank you so much for the awesome feedback that you have been leaving. But I just want to say that since this is a story in progress, if you make a suggestion that I like and it fits into the story that I have outlined, I just may use your idea. Secondly, please be warned that this chapter contains some pretty heavy and emotional talk about abuse. I tried to keep it somewhat vague with not too much detail, but it is about abuse and it is emotional. So, just be warned. And Finally, it took me a little longer to write this chapter. It was really hard to put into words. So I haven't really proofed it much. But I wanted to get it posted as soon as possible. I need to walk away from it for a few hours. But I will come back to it and correct it later on. With all of that being said, enjoy chapter 4.**

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Chapter – 4 Confessions

The car ride from the docks back to the apartment was quick. But it was enough time for me to give David a little bit of background on my relationship with JC. I didn't want to tell him too much because I would only end up repeating the whole thing for my mother. I knew that my father had good intentions for suggesting going back to the loft, but I was starting to kick myself for agreeing. I knew that my mother would bombard us with questions that I wasn't sure that I was ready answer. But as I thought about it, I still had some questions of my own that JC hadn't answered yet; the big one being how in the hell he found Storybrooke.

We pulled into a space in front of the building, JC pulled his car next to the truck, and the three of us climbed the stairs to the landing. "Do you mind staying out here for a minute? I need to go in and prime my mother. She can be a little over the top when it comes to me and my life before Storybrooke."

JC nodded politely as he took off his gloves and hat. Just as I turned the door knob, I looked over to my father who was standing next to JC with his arms crossed. In a quick sweeping motion, I grabbed David's upper arm and dragged him through the door with me, "you're coming with me."

"Hey, so what happened?" my mother asked as soon as she saw us come through the door. She was in the kitchen washing dishes and I knew exactly why she was there. I spotted a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies on the island and I made a beeline for them reaching for one right away. Oh they were still warm and the chips were all gooey.

"We need to talk," I said with a mouthful of cookie. I looked up to my dad then quickly down to the empty stool next to me. He got the message. Reaching for a cookie for himself, he glided his body onto the stool.

My mom shifted her gaze to him and then me as she waved her index finger in our direction, "did you two make up?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're good." I quickly responded. "But here's the thing, that guy that was here this morning was my foster brother when I was sixteen." Quick like a band aid; I just had to blurt it out fast.

"Emma.." My mom started but I waved my hand in the air to stop her.

"He's outside, waiting to come in to talk and neither of you are going to attack him like he's a steak and you haven't eaten for a month." My mother jerked her head back and put her eyebrows together trying to look offended. "Oh don't look at me like that."

"Like what? I have no idea what you are talking about." To my right I heard my father chuckle, earning him an elbow to the side.

"Hey." He reached his hand down to rub the point of impact.

"Come on, guys." Now I was pleading, or whining. Whatever worked in my favor. "I know that you guys are excited to meet someone from my past and learn a little more about my time without you. But I don't know why he is here, and for some reason he was not comfortable talking about it in public; which makes me nervous on its own."

Mary Margaret was the first to speak. "We promise, honey." I looked to David, he nodded in agreement. "Come on, let's get this guy in here and have some hot chocolate with these cookies."

I smiled knowing that they would be on their best behavior. As David prepared the hot chocolate and Mary Margaret followed me to the door, I invited JC into the apartment. "JC, I would like you meet my mother, Mary Margaret." She offered her hand to him take shake, but instead he gave a gentle twist to her arm lifting the back of her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss. As a matter of fact, it almost looked like he gave a little bow as well.

I gave him a sideways look and curled my upper lip. I yanked him to the side out of earshot of my parents "What the hell was that?"

"What was what?"

"That…" I lifted my arms in my mother's direction. "That…what you did with my mother? The whole lips, hand, kiss thing. What the hell was that?"

"What? I greeted your mother." He looked offended, like he thought that what he did was perfectly normal. And maybe it was, in the enchanted forest, but not here; not in this world. Suddenly my eyes widened with realization. He knew. Oh my god, he knew, but how? And how much did he know?

"Are you ok?" I didn't hear him. My mind was reeling. "Emma?"

I snapped out of it when he touched my shoulder. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Let's have some cookies and hot chocolate."

I watched him cross the room to the table and interact with my parents throwing some small talk their way about how good the cookies smelled. If I wasn't suspicious of his arrival before, I certainly was now. I was going to have to get to the bottom of this. I felt my phone buzz which pulled me out of my reverie. Damn weather alert, I could only deal with one snow storm at a time, and the white stuff that was starting to fall from the sky was not on the top of the list.

"Emma, are you going to join us?" I looked in the direction of my father's voice and nodded my head. I took the seat at the table that was opposite of my mother. Oh, wherever shall we begin.

"So, JC…" Oh great, here we go. Mary Margaret had started things off. "You knew Emma when she was…?" She left a pause to allow him to answer.

"Sixteen." He took a small bite of a cookie and chased it with a sip of hot chocolate. "Which I think, was the last time that I had cinnamon on my hot chocolate."

"Oh, gee, I'm sorry, I should have asked."

"No, no, it's fine. Emma always made it like this when we were kids." He gave her a warming smile. If he was trying to win points with my mother, he was doing a spectacular job. He had tugged on just about every heart string and we were only five minutes into our conversation.

"Yeah, Emma was placed in my parent's home when she was sixteen. I had always wanted a sibling but when my mother couldn't have any more children; they applied to be foster parents. It was never really the same. It was hard to get close to a kid when the social workers would pull that kid out for one reason or another. It wasn't until Emma came that I really felt like I had a sister."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. My mother was really soaking this in. For the most part it was true, but he was making it sound so much better than it actually was. He was setting her up for fall, and I just couldn't take it. "JC, don't." I shot him a pleading look. "Don't do this, please. Mom, I don't think that you're ready…" I was cut off by David squeezing my hand.

I looked over to him, "It's time," he nodded. A single tear rolled down my face. My father was telling me that now was the time that I was going to tell my mother about one of the worst moments of my life. There was no way to spare her feelings on this, but I could see that he was giving me the support that I needed to continue. But he was also saying that he needed to hear it too.

"JC's house was a decent placement at first. But it was the last home that I was placed in before I ran away from the system." I took a deep breath. I looked between my parents. Their eyes were intently locked onto my face.

"JC was the only other kid in their house and he was their biological child." I looked over to JC and he nodded in reassurance, so I continued "The first few months were ok. But that was mostly because Child protective services was checking in every couple of weeks. But as their visits slacked off, Mr. Cooper's drinking increased." The sound of my mother's gasp sent a pain through my heart. But I had started so I had to finish. JC had moved his chair closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders.

"As time went on, the fighting and the hitting got louder and harder. I would hide in my room. And when I finally heard it all stop I knew that Mr. Cooper had either left or had fallen asleep. That was when I would go find JC, take him back to his room, and take care of his wounds. I didn't dare take him to my room, because if Mr. Cooper found him there" I paused, "well, you know."

"Emma, did he ever-?" my mother started to asked. I put my hand up to cut her off.

"After I had gotten him to his room and I knew that he was going to be ok, we would sit and talk for hours. This wasn't anything new to me. I had been through my fair share." A tear rolled down Mary Margaret's cheek.

"But we would talk and dream about how we were going to run away together and I would be free of the system and he would be free of his father. We even came up with a plan on how we were going to leave. February 2 at 5 AM was the day and time. He would have been passed out by then. And it would have been a clean getaway. We had some fake ID's made up to give us aliases and make me 18. And JC had, what" I looked to him "$3000 saved up from delivering pizzas for the past couple of years?" He nodded to say that my recollection was correct.

"That morning, we set our plan in motion. We were going to leave the house, hit the ATM and then directly to the airport to buy our tickets out of Boston. Except, when we went downstairs Mr. Cooper wasn't passed out. No, he was awake, drunk, and arguing with Mrs. Cooper. That was the day that I learned what kind of damage a baseball bat can do. I stood there frozen; I didn't know what to do. In all the time that I had been there, he never laid a finger on her or me. He never yelled at either of us. Only JC. JC got it all, all of the anger, all of the yelling, all of the hitting." I sent him an apologetic look, "He took it all for both of us. But then Mr. Cooper saw me standing there. He knew that I had seen everything and he came after me. I don't remember much more after that, I only know what JC had told me when I woke two weeks later in the hospital. And that was, that when he saw Mr. Copper going after his mother, he called 911. The police showed up and busted in while he was beating me. He was arrested, plead guilty, and has been in jail ever since."

My mother's hand flew to her face and she was sobbing on uncontrollably. My father was also crying, but his hysterics did not compare to hers. I quickly ran to her and knelt down by her side.

"Mom, look at me," she shook her head.

I tried again, "Mom, please, look at me."

She began crying harder, I pulled her hands from her face and guided them to mine. I forced her to touch my cheeks, my nose, and my lips. "Momma, please, look at me, I'm ok, see?"

I started to cry. Why did I tell her this. Why did she ever have to know that this had happened to me. "Mom, please…" I put her hands back to my cheeks that were wet with tears. She, then, quickly pulled my head to her torso and just held me tight as we both cried.

"I'm ok, mom." I said again. "I survived and I'm stronger for it."

My mother held me and cried for what seemed like hours. She cried for me. She cried for her and David. She cried for JC. I really do not know how long she held me. At some point my father got up and pulled JC into just as tight of a hug and would not let him go. Then I finally heard my mother ask a question. "What happened when you left the hospital?"

"What?" I asked, gently pulling away from her. She cupped my cheeks with her hands.

"What happened when you left the hospital?" She repeated.

Before I could answer, JC spoke up. "Emma, was sent to a group home to fully recover. She was there for a couple of weeks after her hospital release. I went to visit her every day. When she was finally ready, we made plans. We met at the park on a sunny April afternoon. I gave her the ID, the money, and a plane ticket to Portland."

I smiled up at my mother, "You know everything that happened after that; Neal, jail, Henry…"

My mother pulled me close to her once more. But I could tell that she had looked over to JC, who was still being held by my father, and mouthed a thank you. I knew that David had said something to him, but I did not hear what it was.

Once I was able to wiggle free from my mother's hold, we all sat back at the table. The clock was showing that it was about time for lunch and Neal was actually waking up from his morning nap. How that little one slept through all of that commotion was a mystery to me. But I was grateful that he did.

My mother had risen to get him, but I told her to sit. I would get him. I pulled JC with me, just to give my parents a moment to themselves. "Time to meet the little brother."

"Hey little guy," JC said as I picked him up from the crib. He reached down to tickle his chin and Neal's little fist clamped onto his finger. "I must say, you look just like your big sister."

I looked back to the kitchen at my parents. They were engage in a small but important conversation. "Why are you here, JC?"

He gave me a sour look. "Can we talk about this later?"

I should have known that after what I had just told my parents, they wouldn't leave me alone for too long. They were already making their move to check on me and Neal. "Later," I hissed back. "Why you are here, and what it is that you think you know. Got it?" he nodded.

"Emma" I peaked past the curtain to see my mother.

"Are you guys hungry? We thought that we could order pizza, and maybe you two could share some good stories with us?" She was hopeful but I could still see the sadness on her face. At this point in time, I needed to make the rest of this day about them. I needed to let them hug me, kiss me, not let me out of their sight for more than two seconds. It was going to take some time for them to heal from today's confession. And I had to let them heal in their own way.


	5. Chapter 5 - Snow Storm

**Thank you again, to all of my awesome readers. I am sorry that the wait was so long for this one. I rewrote 3 times. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this week may be a little harder to update for me. My schedule for this week is horrendous, but it could also result in a lot of bored sitting around. So I'm either going to have a lot of time to write, or none at all. Thank you for all of the fabulous reviews. It really helps to keep the motivation going. I tried to incorporate some suggestions in this chapter. So please enjoy.**

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Chapter 5 – Snow Storm

I stood by the window holding my baby brother in my arms. I was enjoying watching the snow lightly fall over the town of Storybrooke. I had been receiving the weather alerts all morning, but I never really took the time to actually read the forecast. But I had heard that we were supposed to get a couple of inches of snow this afternoon. I was holding Neal so that he could see the snow fall as well, but he seemed more content with grabbing and yanking my hair. And can I just say that little guy had quite a grip.

When the pizza arrived, we sat around the table exchanging stories of the short time that JC and I were together in the Cooper house. It wasn't all bad. Like the time that I let JC talk me into trying out for the high school musical. Let's face I'm not an actor, never was, singing and dancing wasn't really my thing..

"You should have seen the look of horror on Emma's face when they told her that she had to dance and sing during the audition." I rolled my eyes at him and whacked him in the chest with the back of my hand.

"Oh, I can just imagine," David said with a chuckle. I looked over to Mary Margaret but she just looked down at the floor. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I noticed that she hadn't looked at me at all since my "confession." She hadn't said much to me either. It was like she was only speaking to me when I asked her a question.

"Anyway," I cut in, "I decided that being on stage was not for me and I joined the stage crew instead. Power tools were more my style."

JC started to laugh and gave a smirk, "Do you remember Tim Watson?"

Oh, how could I not remember him? Tim Watson was this tall, lanky kid who was about two years younger than me. His mother was the history teacher at the school but also a fantastic artist. His parents had divorced when he was little and he didn't see much of his dad, leaving him to think that he was the man of the house. Unfortunately that also made him think that he was the ruler of the school. I don't know if it was just his ego or if he just ignored the fact that nobody could stand to be around him. He would spout out orders and everyone would just ignore everything that he said and go about their business. "Ugh…I hated that kid."

"What was so bad about Tim Watson?" I smiled at my father. He was at least engaging in the conversation. My mother had taken to feeding Neal but she still would not even look in my direction. I made a slight frown as I took my glance from her back to my father. He was seeing it now too, it wasn't just my imagination. He sent me an understanding yet tender look and I answered his question.

"Oh, he was so annoying. He was one of those kids who thought that he knew everything about anything. His mother was the art director and was painting all of the back ground scenes. And he took her position to mean that he was in charge of all of the stage crew." I could feel all of the anger rushing back.

"Oh, there was one day where Tim had pushed Emma a little too far," JC took over telling the story. "Emma was assigned the job of attaching the muslin to a large wooden frame."

"It had to be stretched out just right, so that it could be painted," I interjected.

"Mrs. Watson had just finished telling Emma how to stretch it and she was doing a perfect job. But Tim came over and started to tear into Emma, and began to tell her how she wasn't leaving enough slack in the muslin. She had already had the muslin stapled to the frame and he told her that she had to take out all of the staples and redo it. Suddenly, the room went quiet when we heard Emma start screaming at him. You remember that?" He looked at me with a grin and I nodded. "All we heard, was 'go ahead Tim, say it again, I dare you!'"

My father gave me a knowing look and I couldn't help but smile at him when he asked "what did you do?"

"Nothing," I tried to act innocent. The key word there was try. But yeah, David saw right threw me instantly.

"Emma," David playfully drug out my name, calling my bluff. Ok, not only was he getting this parenting thing down, but he was starting to really know his daughter.

I stammered for a minute, before I came clean, "I may have tackled him." I squinted my eyes at him as if somehow that was going to soften the blow. I felt like I was a teenager again, trying to explain to my parents why I was suspended from school.

"And," JC laughed out.

"And, I may have threatened to staple his ears to the floor." I finished.

"Threatened? Mrs. Martin had to practically race across the room to rip the staple gun out of your hand! You were sitting on his back, holding his head down to the floor with one hand, and moving the staple gun towards his ear with the other."

My father began to laugh hysterically as he crossed behind me. He dropped a kiss on the top of my head as he reached for my dish to take to the kitchen. "That's my girl," he beamed with pride and I knew why. He always took pride in the strong woman that I had become. He loved the fact that I didn't take anyone's shit. From what I gathered from the stories, before he become the Prince, he was a very timid man who had to take a lot of shit from a lot of people. Which reminded me that one day I was going to have to ask him to tell me more about Bo Peep.

"Hey, it wasn't like the guy didn't have it coming. Everyone was thinking it, I just had the guts to do it." Yep. That was all the defense that I needed. Too bad I didn't know that I had magic back then or the outcome would have been very different.

"So who was this Mrs. Martin?

"She was the drama teacher and the director of the musical. She was quite skilled and demanded nothing less than perfection." I remembered that her reputation was impeccable. One of her high school performance could rival any performance put on by any city cultural trust.

"Emma's right, everyone wanted to put Tim in his place, but no was willing to take action. We all watched with baited breath. Mrs. Martin had a temper and she had said more than once that there was no room for petty arguments and such behavior among her cast and crew." I knew what JC was going to say next and I couldn't help but beam a childish smile. "So imagine our surprise when Mrs. Martin handed the staple gun back to Emma, and turned to Tim. I can still hear her yelling at him it too. She said 'Tim quit pissing Emma off, or the next time I'm not going to stop her!'"

"Yeah, he went running straight to his mother. I don't know what she said to him, but whatever it was it was apparent that she was on my side because he put his head down and slumped away." I couldn't help but laugh at the memory. I didn't see it then, but I definitely did now that I was an adult. Mrs. Martin was one of the few people in my adolescent life that was looking out for me.

"He sat in the corner the rest of the night."JC said as he looked down at his watch and put a hand on my shoulder. He began to stand. "Well, it's quarter til two, I better get going if I'm going to get back to Augusta before the weather hits too hard. It was wonderful meeting you all."

My father stood and reached a hand in his direction, "the pleasure was ours JC. Thank you for everything that you have done for Emma and our family. I think I speak for all us us when I say that we truly hope to visit with you again."

JC accepted his hand. "Thank you for your hospitality. I look forward to our next meeting."

"Come on, JC, I'll walk you out." I cast a glance to my parents. Again my mother looked away but my father nodded. I escorted JC to the door where he quickly slipped on his coat and hat.

"You have a wonderful family," JC said as we made our way down the stairs. "I'm very happy for you, Emma."

I spun around on him quickly. "Cut the crap, JC. What are you doing here? You said that we had to talk. But the only talking we have done today has been about my screwed up life. And thanks by the way. Thank you for making me tell my parents that horrible story. My mother can't even look at me now, let alone talk to me." I held onto my tough exterior, I was fighting so hard to hold back the tears. "I tried so hard to keep that part of my life from her. She didn't need to know any of that horrible stuff." And now she did.

"Emma, I'm sorry." He looked around to see if anybody was in earshot before he continued. "I have been looking for you for over a decade. An undertaking that has proven to be most difficult. It was about 4 or 5 months ago when I finally caught a break. My girlfriend, she is a detective with the Augusta Police Department. When your trail went cold, I enlisted her help to find you. She did. You came up on her registers as being the sheriff in Storybrooke, Maine. A town that seems can only be found by those who know where it is."

"Come on, you sound like the damn Pirates of The Caribbean movie." I interrupted.

"No Emma, I'm serious. It took a lot of searching to find this place. After we found it, we came here a couple of times looking for you. But we never did see you. We even stopped in that pawn shop and bought a little medallion that I hung from my rear view mirror."

"How did you find this place?" I crossed my arms. I was growing tired of the circles in all of his statements. I had been trying to get an answer to that question all day.

"I told you, my girlfriend is a detective. She used her resources find it. And you're right, I did come here for a reason today."

He was lying. There was no doubt about that, I had this uncanny ability to tell when anyone was lying, but I raised my eyebrow at him begging him to continue. "After seeing your mother's reaction, I decided that it was better to tell you when we were alone."

"And what is that, JC?" Yes, I let him beat around another bush, but I was on borrowed time before my father came down to check on me.

He quickly looked to floor then back up and directly into my eyes. "He's out."

That was all that he needed to say and I understood. Mr. Cooper was out of jail. "Is he looking for me?"

"I don't think so, but I haven't talked to him either."

I studied him for a minute. He was sincere about Mr. Cooper. "And what do you know about this town?"

He pursed his lips but then told me what I needed to hear or more specifically what he thought that I needed to hear. "On the trips that I have made here, I have seen things. People seem to feel safe here and they don't hide. One of my first trips scared the shit out of me though, when I saw some huge, I don't know…Ice Man moving down the street toward the forest? I stopped in that little diner to get some coffee to calm my nerves; because at that point I had convinced myself that I was hallucinating; when this guy named Leroy came in talking all about it and how someone named Regina blasted it with magic. I started asking questions, and to my surprise, I started getting answers. People here just assumed that everyone in this town was just like everyone else. I even had someone ask me who I was in the old world."

I nodded. I knew what he meant. Other than me, this town only had two other outsiders enter, Greg and Tamara. And Tamara wasn't that much of a concern at first because she came on the coat tails of Neal, under the guise of being his fiancé. So people here just assumed that everyone in town was from the enchanted forest. It was starting to fall in line. But he still was not telling me the whole truth and I wasn't going to push. Not right now anyway, my thoughts flooded back to my parents upstairs. I had to take care of them first. "I see…come on" I motioned toward the door to the outside. I was surprised to see that we already had about five inches of snow. "Ew, doesn't look like you're going anywhere at the moment." Without four wheel drive he was stuck in this town for a while and the snow didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

"Great. Nope it appears not. Any place to stay around here?"

I pointed down the street toward Granny's. "Granny's has a B&amp;B attached to it. Tell Ruby that you're a friend of mine. She'll set you up."

"Thanks." He gave me a crooked smile.

"And try not to ask anymore questions, if you ask too many people will start to get suspicious. And you don't want that."

"Got it." He said as he turned in the direction of the diner.

"And JC," I called after him.

"Yeah?"

"Meet me and my dad at the police station tomorrow at 10 am. We need to talk." He nodded and walked away. I turned to face the building that I had just exited. I was in for a long evening of emotional healing and parental comforting. I cast one more backwards glance to JC. I did not have a good feeling about his arrival, but first things first, I had to fix things with my parents.


	6. Chapter 6 - I'll fix it

**Here's a little Charming family for everyone. Be warned, it doesn't come without some emotional angst. But I hope you all like it anyway. Thank you all for the reviews. Keep them coming. I am so appreciative and elated that you are all enjoying the story. Happy Monday, everyone!**

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Chapter 6

I heard Neal crying as I approached the apartment door. I knew his I'm hungry cry, his change me cry, and his I want attention cry. But this cry was different. This was more like an 'I'm scared' cry. Suddenly I knew why. My father's voice sounded out above the cries. "Give him to me. You need to put him down. He is picking up on your fear."

"No" was all that she had said to him. Contempt had filled her voice. That one word sounded like venom. I opened the door and I poked my head through just in time to see her pull my brother away from my father's reach; something that she had done before. It was the day that my magic was spinning out of control and I accidentally boiled the milk in the bottle. It was a simple act of caution that felt like a knife going threw my heart.

They must have heard the door close behind me because they both looked in my direction as soon as I entered. Again, my mother never made eye contact and quickly looked down to the floor. My face fell. David didn't miss her reaction either. He sent me an apologetic look. He released a heavy sigh, but quickly he realized that this was he chance. He plucked Neal from Mary Margaret's arms and held him out in my direction. She reached out her arms as if she was going to grab him, but she pulled back with a grunt when I approached to take him. "Emma, please take your brother upstairs and give him a bath."

Settling Neal in my arms, I pointed to the only bathroom that was in the apartment, behind David. "Dad, the bathro…" And there was the look, "Um…yeah…right. Come on baby bro, have you ever had a baby wipe bath before?" I spun around hooking the diaper bag, which was sitting on the coffee table, with my arm in the process. I stole one more glance at my parents as I exited up the stairs with Neal in tow. My mother was glaring at my father. He was standing by the island with his arms crossed.

I purposely left the door to my bedroom open so that I could hear the ensuing conversation downstairs. Judging by their demeanor when I left the room, it wasn't going to be quiet. I laid Neal on my bed and quickly placed my pillows all around him. He was always rolling over on his own to crawl away and the last thing that I need was for him to roll off of my bed and hit the floor.

It was still quiet downstairs; too quiet, really. I pulled the baby wipes from the bag then undressed the little squirt. The name was kind of ironic, as soon as I took off his diaper, that's what he did. "Oh, damn it, Neal! I swear as soon as cold air hits that thing it goes off like a squirt gun." I was quick to cover him with a fresh diaper, so nothing hit my bed. It wasn't the first time that he tried to give me that special shower. Of course, he giggled. Was he too young for me to roll my eyes at him?

"I'm telling you now, little brother, as long as I am around, peeing is the only thing you better be using that thing for. If you think Dad is overprotective, he's got nothing on me." His little laugh was infectious. I used my index fingers to tickle his little sides and giggled harder.

"I am NOT afraid of my children!" I jumped when I heard my mother scream at my father.

"Snow, I didn't say that you were." He was surprisingly calm towards her. "All I'm saying is that Neal was picking up on your emotional state. He feels what you feel and he was reacting to you."

"You have no idea what I feel." She shot back. I closed my eyes. I did this to them, I told them that horrible story. This was why I kept the truth from them. I knew that it would be too much to for them handle. They knew that my life had been hard, but until today I was able to shelter them from just how hard.

Neal started to whimper. I picked him up and cradled him close to my body. I heard my father start again, "I do know. And you know what else? You can't shut her out."

"I'm not shutting anyone out." The shouting was getting louder. I was suddenly taken back to my youth when I would hear my foster parents argue about me. So many times I would come home from school only to hear them arguing about paying the bills and still being able to buy food. If they didn't have an extra mouth to feed they wouldn't have a problem. I remembered shouts. I remember overhearing the phone calls to the social workers for them to come pick me up, "we don't want her anymore" is what they would say, "We can't keep her."

"You are, Snow. It was extremely hard for her to tell you that story, and you haven't even looked at her since she finished it. Damn it, Snow! She is our daughter. She needs us to love her now more than ever."

I looked down at my little brother in my arms. I tried to cover his ears so that he didn't have to hear them. "I'm sorry, Neal." Tears were stinging my eyes. "I'll fix it. I promise, I'll fix it." I laid him down on my bed between the pillows just long enough to allow myself the time to pack a small overnight bag. I quickly descended the stairs with Neal in my arms. I walked straight to my mother and placed him in hers. I gave her a sad smile and turned to the door.

"Where are you going?" David snagged my arm as I walked past him. I looked back at my mother who was smiling down on Neal; happy to be holding her little boy again.

I tried to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. "You guys don't need me here tonight. I'll see you at the station in the morning." I couldn't look him in the eye.

"But where are you going?"

"Granny's," I choked. "I'll spend the night at Killian's."

"No you won't." Oh this was not the time for him to pulled overprotective daddy mode on me. I yanked my arm from his hold. "Dad, she doesn't want me." Was it a Freudian slip that I left the "here" off of that last sentence? Was it how I really felt? I didn't think that it was how I felt, but now I wasn't so sure. I couldn't hold the tears back anymore. "Look at her," now I was screaming at him. "She can't even look at me. She hasn't said two words to me in the last four hours." I cocked my head to the side and gave him a pleading look tears were streaming down my face. I didn't bother to wipe them away. "I can't take it any more, Dad." I hoped that he had understood what, exactly, I was saying. That I was telling him that I loved him and that I was saying goodbye for now. I leaned in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I only know one way to fix it."

I grabbed my coat and left. I hurried down the stairs and I didn't look back. I heard his voice crack as he called my name begging me to come back into the apartment and talk it out. I picked up my pace. I heard the apartment door open and close from the bottom of the stairs. I knew that he would come after me, but I didn't stop.

I stepped out into the snow storm. I willed my legs to move faster, but the fresh fallen snow, deep on the sidewalk slowed me down. I heard the call. "Emma, Emma."I expected it to be David but it wasn't, it was Mary Margaret. I just kept walking. "There has never been a day in my life or yours that I have not wanted you." That admission stopped me dead in my tracks.

I stopped but I did not turn around. "Emma, please come back in."

I threw my head back, looking up to the sky. "Please, Emma," she said again.

"I think it's best if I just go away for a while." I was still refusing to turn around. I couldn't look at her. I couldn't bare the sight of any more disappointment on her face.

"Best for whom? You? Because you think that if you pull away from us it will fix everything? Or me? Because you think that's what I want." By the sound of her voice, she was closing the gap between us.

I didn't answer; I didn't say anything until I felt her hands run down the sides of my arms. "I didn't want you to know just how broken I really was." I finally squeaked out. "I wanted to keep it to myself. It was behind me and I wanted to keep it there."

"Oh, honey, is that what this is about? You couldn't be more wrong." She held my shoulders and turned me around to face her. She cupped my cheeks in her hands forcing me to look her in the eyes. "Do you know what I see when I look at you?"

I shook my head.

"Every time I look at your sweet face, I see the strongest most beautiful woman that I have ever met in my entire life. I see my wonderful, courageous daughter who overcame the worst odds. I see someone who went through something horrible and did it with grace and bravery. I look at you and I just can't believe that you are mine. I can't believe that I created this most perfect person that is standing here before me."

"I didn't know how to defend myself. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't the strong daughter of Snow White. I was weak." Her thumbs moved across my cheeks wiping away my tears.

"Sweetheart, there hasn't been a day in your life that you have been weak."

I pulled my face from her hands, fervently shaking my head. "No, no." I tried to turn around and walk away again. She grabbed my shoulders holding me in place.

"Listen," I pulled back but she cupped my face again. "Listen to me. Emma, honey, I'm so, so sorry. I never meant to shut you out or make you feel like I didn't want you. That couldn't be further from the truth." I tried to look away but her hold on me was too powerful. "This was never about whether or not I wanted you; because I did and I do with every fiber of my being; it was about you not wanting me."

I furrowed my brow. A look of disbelief had washed over my face. Did she just tell me that she thought I didn't want her?

"I'm your mother; it was" she shook her head in correction "it is my job to protect you. I had just found out that my baby, whom I was trying to protect and who was supposed to be taken care of by these people, was beaten within an inch of her life. And knowing that I was the one who put you there, it was all too much for me to handle and I hit a wall. I couldn't understand why you would ever want me in your life when I was sole reason for every bit of hell that you went through. Anger and doubt consumed every bit of my being. I was ashamed of myself. I was ashamed to even look at you. I was afraid to talk to you because I had it in my head that anything that you had to say to me would have been filled with poison. And I couldn't take it. I didn't realize, what my actions had actually meant to you."

She broke me with her words. "I'm sorry, mom. I'm so very, very sorry."

She pulled me into a tight hug and held me for a minute before pulling back. "You have no reason to be sorry. You did not do anything wrong. Do you understand me?"

I nodded my head and she wiped away what was left of the tears on my face. "Come on, let's go back inside. I think that it is time that I make my baby her favorite dinner. How does that sound?"

I smiled as I put my arm around her waist and laid my head on her shoulder. Much like did with my father at the docks this morning. "Can I help?"

"Are you kidding me?" I didn't look at her face, but I knew she was showing a smile that stretched to her ears. "I would want nothing less."

"Mom?" My voice was full of hope.

"Yes, baby."

"I really am ok, you know."

"I know sweetheart. I know." I smiled at her words and held her just a bit tighter, but I felt her tense up a bit before she stopped and lifted my chin so that my eyes met hers. She studied them for a second. "Emma, what is it? Something else is bothering you."

I tried to shake it off with just the swaying of my head and a quiet "nothing, I'm ok." But it didn't work. She didn't move from her stop or let my chin go.

"Emma…" She started but I quickly interrupted her.

"He's out. That is why JC was here. He came to warn me that Mr. Cooper is out of jail."

"Is he…" the stutter that was in her voice made her fear obvious.

"Looking for me?" I finished. "JC doesn't seem to think so. But he wanted to me to be aware."

We reached the top of the landing and the apartment door flew open. David was standing there with two blankets. He wrapped one around Mary Margaret and then the other around my shoulders pulling me into a hug. "Don't you ever run out on me like that again, do you understand me?"

I held my father tight, tighter than I think that I have ever held him. "I understand."

We spent rest of the afternoon cooking dinner. My mother was teaching me her recipe for Macaroni and Cheese. I absolutely loved my mother's cooking. And you know what else, I absolutely loved being able to call her my mother.

She handed me a block of super sharp cheddar cheese and a grater, instructing me to grate 1 packed cup of the cheese. As I did, I watched my father bounce my little brother on his knee. Oh that little giggle was infectious. I hated to bring the down the good mood that it had taken all day to bring up, but I had to get it off my chest and tell my father.

"Dad?" finally having the courage to bring it up, my mother knew what I was about to tell him and she placed her hand on top of mine.

"Yeah, baby?" I shot a sideways glance to my mother. They were both calling me baby now; I let out a sigh, choosing to let them have their moments today.

"I found out why, JC was here."

"Oh yeah, why is that?" He continued to bounce Neal on his knee.

He only looked up at me when I finished my next sentence. "He came to warn me that Mr. Cooper was out of jail."

"He's what?" My father shifted his hard look to my mother when she started to speak.

"As far as we know, this guy is not looking for Emma. JC just thought that she needed to know. And the rest of this day is for our daughter, we do not need to think about this man anymore today. The two of you can go back to the station tomorrow and you will figure it out then."

I had to laugh when my father crossed the room and locked door, including the lock that August had installed when Mary Margaret was framed for killing the not dead Kathryn. He set Neal down on his play blanket as he made his way back to the kitchen. He came up behind the two of us, snaking his right arm around my mother's waist and his left around mine. I let out a groan when he turned and gave my mother a passionate kiss.

He suddenly turned back to me, "If you kiss me like that, I'm going to kick you." I tried to make the cheese in my hand look very threatening.

He let out a laugh. He started by giving me rapid little pecks all over the side of my face and before I knew it had both hands wrapped around my waist from behind, tickling me. "Dad," I screamed. My only defense was to fall dead weight to the floor, "Dad, stop." Unfortunately I took all of the grated cheese with me. I was laughing so hard, I didn't care that I had cheese everywhere.

"Dad, please." He only stopped when I started coughing from laughing so hard. He gave me one more peck to the cheek, before he rose and held out a hand to help me up.

My mother, with a huge grin on her face, handed me another block of cheese and my father the dustpan and broom. Yeah, this was my family. And I loved them.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Medallion

**Hi All - Once again thank you to everyone who has shown such positive support for this story. I apologize for my delay in posting. It was a very busy week for me. Anyway, please enjoy. I hope you like. One thing that I would like to reiterate is that this is my story done my way. It may not follow the details of the show exactly. So if you do not like it, then simply move along. There may be some errors, I will fix them at a later time. I wanted to get this posted right away, but as before, I need to walk away from it for a bit. Enjoy!**

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Chapter 7 - The Medallion

Today started like any normal day, except for the fact that I rushed off to get to the station early. With everything that had happened yesterday, I hadn't really put in a full day of work, I only responded to the calls that were absolutely necessary. Which wasn't many, the snow kept most people inside.

I walked to the station, being such a small light car; the bug did not go well in the snow. But that didn't matter to me much; ever since I was a kid I enjoyed taking a walk in the fresh fallen snow. The snow fall rate had slowed yesterday evening but it did continue to fall throughout the night leaving about 9 inches of accumulation in total.

"Damn it," I groaned as I approached the station and saw him standing there. I would place bets that this man must watch the station waiting for the days that I would come in alone. I pulled out my keys as I pushed him aside so that I could unlock the door to the station. "What can I do for you today, Spencer?" I didn't even bother to hide the annoyance in my voice.

"Now, is that any way to greet your grandfather?" He was always trying to find a way to stick it to my father. And one of his favorites was trying to pretend that there was an actual familiar relationship with us; especially me. In the Enchanted Forest, Mr. Spencer was King George, the adoptive father David's brother, James and eventually David too, sort of. He was also the King that my parents overthrew to take back the kingdom. He knew that just his presence near me drove my father nuts and he was all too happy instigate.

"You are not my grandfather." I walked around him to enter my office. He followed me, like always. I glanced at the clock; I knew that it was best to get him out of the station quickly before my father arrived which would be in about ten minutes.

"You're father…" he started with a raised voice, but I finished with a matching pitch.

"Is not here, Mr. Spencer. So please, spit out whatever complaint it is that I'm going to ignore and let me get on with my day."

He quickly changed subject away from David, "Why it is that the roads were not cleared last evening?" I heard the irritation in his voice.

"I'm the sheriff, not the road crew." I responded with little care of easing his grievance.

"And as the sheriff, an emergency responder, you should be demanding the roads are cleared immediately." I just rolled my eyes.

I picked up some files from my desk and began to place them in their proper file cabinet drawers. "The truck broke down."

"We only have one truck in this town?" I guess today was going to be jackass day. Albert Spencer was like clockwork. Every eight weeks or so, he would show up at the station griping about something insignificant. He was that town pest that everyone had wished would just go away. His tactic was always the same; wait until I was alone but at the same time know that my father wasn't too far behind.

"Apparently, so." I was quite disinterested in this conversation. I stopped my filing long enough to scribble a name and number down on a notepad. Ripping the top sheet off, I handed it to him. "Call the road supervisor. File your complaints with him. If there is a reasonable cause for concern then he'll bring it to the mayor's attention."

"The mayor?" it wasn't a question. More like a derogatory remark.

I flashed him a smile that was full of arrogance. "Yeah, the mayor. I believe that you know her?"

I could see the anger building in his face. "I don't believe that like your tone, Miss Swan." Wow, was that all of a comeback that he could muster?

"Good," I responded, I put both of my hands down on the desk allowing me to lean forward in an intimidating stance with my same arrogant smile, "that means that I've accomplished something today. And I love it when I have a productive day."

His face turned beat red with anger. He turned and huff out of the station knocking into David's shoulder as he was coming in with a box of donuts and coffee. David shot him a glare then quickly looked back at me with concern "Did he-."

"No, he's fine." I said waving it off. "He just has a bug up his ass about the roads. I sent him to Leroy." David set the donuts down on my desk and leaned in to give me a quick kiss on the cheek as he handed me my hot chocolate. Both of my parents were being overly affectionate after yesterday. I had a hard time with displays of affection, it was something that I was not quite comfortable with but it seemed that I needed to let them do it, so that they could heal. "Bear claw?" I asked him grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Now, come on, would I get my girl anything else?"

I quickly pulled the pastry from the box and took a bite. "I love it when you spoil me."

"Don't tell mom, ok?" He gave me a wink and went to his desk to get started on his paper work. "She'll use it as an excuse to make extra vegetables for dinner."

I went back to my filing and he began writing up the reports from the few calls that came in overnight. Every once in a while I would notice, out of the corner of my eye, him staring at me. The couple of times that I looked up at him, he didn't turn away; he just gave me a loving smile.

"Hey, Dad?" I hoisted myself up to sit on his desk when I was done with the filing.

"Yeah." He answered. He threw his pen on his desk and leaned back in his chair to get a better look at my face.

"If you…do you ever still think about going back to the enchanted forest?" It wasn't the question that I was going to ask, but it must have been the question that was on my mind because it flew out of my mouth the minute that he gave me his attention.

He didn't get a chance to answer. In the couple of seconds that he took to pause, I heard a throat clear from across the room. We both looked over to see JC entering the station. My father quickly got up and moved toward him with an extended hand. "JC, what brings you here this morning?"

JC shot me a puzzled look, but quickly recovered with a nod in my direction. "Emma asked me to stop in this morning before I headed back to Augusta."

"Well, then," David looked around the room with his eyes stopping on me. "I will step out and give you two a minute."

"No, Dad. Stay." My reaction was a little too sharp. I saw the concern rise on David's face. I eased my voice a little before I continued. "JC, just came by to tell us how he found Storybrooke and what he knows." I crossed my arms and gave JC a knowing stare.

"Still not one for small talk, huh?"

I shook my head and pointed to the vacant chair next to the desk. "Nope. Especially when it delays my quest for answers."

David was now standing next to me leaning on his desk while JC reluctantly took a seat before I continued. "How'd you find me?" That was it, short, sweet and to the point. I could tell that David didn't like my tactic when he put his hand on my shoulder.

"JC, would you like a cup of coffee?" he offered.

"Sure, that would be great. Thank you."

"No problem." David looked at me and nudged his head in the direction of the coffee pot.

I furrowed my brow and my jaw dropped. "You can't be serious?"

"Emma, please, just go put on a small pot of coffee." I let out a little huff as I jumped down from the desk. JC gave a little chuckle as he watched me obey my father. It was an action that earned him a smack to the back of his head with my hand.

"Ow!" He rubbed the point of impact with his own hand.

My father quickly interjected with his next question. "So, JC, you said that your girlfriend is a detective?"

"Yeah, for the Augusta Police Department." Great, my father was making small talk. Just what I didn't want to do.

"So what is it that you do for a living?"

"I'm a social worker, for Child Protective Services." I dropped the can of coffee.

"You're what?" I spun around ignoring the mess that I made. "What the hell? Why didn't you tell me that?"

"You didn't ask." He turned back on me.

"What are you laughing at?" I cut a hard look to my father.

He tried, unsuccessfully, to cover the grin on his face with his hand. "If I didn't know better, I would argue that you two are actually brother and sister."

"Well, then, I guess it's a good thing that you know better," I snickered. "Unless, of course, there is something that you're not telling me."

"Actually, Emma, you're the reason I went into social work." The mood suddenly turned serious. "After what happened, I made a vow to myself that I was going to see to it that I would help kids in those situations. I've been working for Augusta Child Protective Services since I graduated with my master's degree in social work."

"Wow, that is very admirable." My father was impressed.

But I wasn't buying it, "Or, you had been looking for me, and working for CPS gave you access to my file."

"Come on, Emma. You were already out of the system for six years, what good would any of the information in your file have done? Why are you so distrusting of me?"

"Because, I want to know why you are here? How you did you find me? How did you find Storybrooke?" My voice was suddenly higher and gave way to my emotions. "Things aren't adding up and I want the truth!"

"Fine, you want the truth? Ok, here it is," JC got up and starting pacing the room running his hand through his hair then down over his face. "Fine. Yes, I took a job in an effort to help me locate you. Not because of what may have been in your file, but anything that may have come in about you as an adult. Then one day, this older guy comes in to my office with a court order to access records. Imagine my surprise when the name on the order was Emma Swan. He was a lawyer, said that he was hired by you to expunge your record. The real perpetrator had been apprehended and admitted to setting you up."

"Who was he?" I said in a growl.

"His name was Sam Jepson. I didn't ask too many questions, I just did what he asked. Suddenly, there was a man standing in front of me who knew where to the find the woman that I had been searching for."

"Sam Jepson? I don't know anyone with that name, and I certainly didn't hire anyone to expunge my record." I looked to my father, "Did you?" he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I cooperated with him in any way that I could, this was the first and only break that I had in finding you. But I also didn't want this guy to know that I was interested in your whereabouts. So I enlisted my girlfriend. She put a tail on him. That's how I found out that you were in Storybrooke and how to get here. Because like you said yesterday, this place isn't on any map that I've ever seen."

"Ok, so how did the 'tail' get this information?" My father asked.

"He was followed to this slummy bar in Augusta. A real dive. He was meeting some woman, we never did get her name. But the conversation was about Emma. He told this woman how to get to Storybrooke, and said that the biggest obstacle was going to be Emma Swan, her parents, and her step-grandmother." JC reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Here, he was able to snap a few pictures."

I carefully pulled the pictures out of the envelope. Scanning through them it didn't take long for me to recognize Sam Jepson. "Gold. Damn it." I said shaking my head. I looked up at David, "who's the woman?"

"I don't know, but I think I know some who will."

"Regina," my father and I said it in unison.

"Who's Regina?" JC asked. As things were beginning to make sense for us, JC was becoming more confused.

"My Step-grandmother."

"Oh."

"JC? You said before that you and your girlfriend came to Storybrooke. You just drove right into town?"

He gave me a confused look. "Yeah, why?"

"How long ago was that?"

"Oh, the beginning of September," he answered.

"That was before Elsa…" I didn't have to finish that sentence for my father to understand. JC was able to drive right into town because that was the time that people were able to leave Storybrooke, right before Elsa's ice wall. "And was that the trip when you bought the medallion in the pawn shop?"

JC nodded in affirmation.

"Was there any time that you had difficulty getting into town?"

"Yes," he said. "It was after the trip that scared the hell out of me and I starting asking questions at the diner. There was, a glacier type wall surrounding the town for a while that blocked my return. I just kept coming back, one day in December, it was gone and I was able to enter the town again."

I looked to David and he to me. We were both thinking it. When Elsa took the wall down, after the snow queen's spell was broken, a cloak was left over the town. Once again, crossing the town line meant no reentry except for myself and Henry. The realization washed over me, "That's it."

"What's it?" David was clearly puzzled.

"The medallion. Dad, don't you get it? In order to get back into Storybrooke, you must possess something that belongs in Storybrooke."

"We need to talk to Regina." David said grabbing for my coat.

I turned to JC. "Thank you." I leaned in to give him a hug. "Go back to Augusta as you planned. We'll take care of Gold from this end. But, when this snow clears, please come back for a visit. I would love to meet your girlfriend."

"You got it, super Swan!" He gave me a smile and extended his hand to David as we exited the building. We knew that Gold wouldn't just disappear quietly. Now we had confirmation that he was on the move and planning something. We just had to figure out what.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Girlfriend

**Once again, thank you to everyone for all of the positive response. I am so glad that you are enjoy the story. I'm not really sure that I like this chapter too much, it was really hard for me to write, but I wanted to get it out, and I think I rushed it. But nonetheless, here it is. I'll reread it the morning, and at least correct any mistakes. **

**Next I wanted to answer a few questions that people have asked. First of all, by my definition of AU - being a story that takes place in the a different setting and time as the current show - this is not AU. It takes place in the same time and same place as the show. I know people can get picky about what is or is not AU so this story is going by my definition. **

**Next - a question was asked about being able to leave Storybrooke, let me take you back to season 4 episode 2 when Emma, David, and Hook were checking out the Ice Wall and Hook said the wall went around the whole town. David made the comment "So once again, we can't leave Storybrooke" inferring that the time during Zelena and Elsa the residents were, in fact, able to leave Storybrooke. I probably could have explained that a little better in the last chapter. And remember that during the first curse, Regina was able to leave Storybrooke, she did so to get Henry in Boston. **

**I think that is all of the questions that I have to answer. I hope this chapter doesn't suck too bad, but it does answer a question, which I try to do in each chapter. Enjoy. I'll proof and fix it tomorrow.**

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Chapter 8 – The Girlfriend

"I don't know what to tell you, Ms. Swan. I don't know who she is; she doesn't even look familiar to me." Regina was no help. I could tell that she was actually trying to put a name to the face, but she couldn't. "It's hard to say who he may know outside of Storybrooke. I know that he had to have some contacts with the outside world, he was the person who arranged Henry's adoption."

My eyes grew wide with realization or was it remembrance. I had forgotten all about his role in Henry's adoption. Originally, I didn't realize it until I was stuck in the Enchanted Forest with Snow, but Gold had known my whereabouts my entire life. I recalled the conversation that I had with my mother when Aurora was being controlled by Cora and locked us in Rumpelstiltskin's cell.

_"__We're going to win this fight, you know. Good always defeats evil."_

_"__You sound like Henry." _

_"__Guess optimism runs in the family."_

_"__I think it skipped a generation." _

_"__You should know better than anybody. You broke the curse." _

_"__What have I done since then? I got us stranded over here, burned down the wardrobe, let Cora get the ash, and now, the compass. The only reason I ever broke the curse, was because it was exactly what Gold wanted me to do. I had nothing to do with it."_

_"__What are you talking about?" _

_"__He told you I was the savior. It was his plan. Once I fulfilled that role, maybe that's all I was ever meant to do. Everything I've ever done… He had it all mapped out before I was even born. I'm not powerful. I'm… I'm not… A savior. I'm a name on a piece of paper. I'm a pawn, and that's exactly why we are in here. And Cora's on her way to Storybrooke." _

I was certain that if anyone had known the identity of the woman in the picture, it would have been Regina. "Could it be someone that you spoke to when you got Henry?" I was grasping at straws, that was 14 years ago and I'm sure that Regina was focused on more than a woman who may have filed her paperwork.

I rubbed my face in frustration. Why was I even worrying about this? Gold was stuck outside of the town and as far as I knew he did not possess anything that really belonged in Storybrooke, so how was he even going to get back into town. I felt my father's hand on the small of my back as we turned toward the door. "I'm sorry, Ms. Swan." I gave Regina a thankful smile. As I stepped toward the door I saw her reach out and touch David's forearm, "If I remember something…"

She didn't need to finish the sentence. My father nodded and whispered a "Thank you."

"Why am I even letting this bother me?" I asked my father as he opened the truck door and helped me slide into the passenger seat of the truck. He hurried around to the driver's side before answering as he climbed inside.

"Because Gold is on the outside and he can't be trusted. Not to mention, he is poking around in your past which make me a little more than uneasy." He put the truck in gear and we headed back toward the station.

"Yeah, but, why? There isn't anything in my past that he doesn't know about or orchestrated." I leaned my head against the window. None of this was making any sense.

"Maybe it's not your past that he is interested in." My father said after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" I didn't lift my head from the window, I just turned it to get a better look at my father.

"Think about it, we know that he had some dealings with the Snow Queen. And we also know that you have a history with the Snow Queen. Maybe there is something within that relationship that is driving his motivation. Where did you go after you ran away from Ingrid?"

"Well, I was sent to a group home for awhile and then the Coopers. Why?" I could see that he was trying to process my teenage housing placements looking for a common denominator. "Do you think that this has something to do with JC?" I gave him a confused look.

"It certainly isn't something that I am ready to rule out, but I think we know what our next move is."

I nodded my head, I knew where he was going with this, "You think it's time to get JC's girlfriend to put another tail on Gold?"

"We need to have someone watching him out there." He said was we both got out of the truck and headed into the station. "She was able to produce results before."

"Come on, though, why would she want to help us? She doesn't even know us." My gut was telling me that this was a bad idea. But not knowing what Gold was up to was making me feel even worse.

"No, but she knows JC. She knows that JC cares about you and she'll do it for him." He handed me his cell phone. "Give him a call; invite them to dinner at our place on Saturday."

I couldn't stop the questioning smirk that crossed my face, "Are you sure that's a good idea? We really don't need someone from the outside world questioning our relationship. I'm still not sure why JC accepted it so easily or what repercussions that is going to have on us."

"Make the call." He said. "We'll play it off as friends…coworkers. Okay?" Against my better judgment I made the call. When I had told JC earlier that I wanted to meet his girlfriend, I had no intentions of my parents tagging along. My original plan was simple, the three of us meet at Granny's have a great lunch then all be on our way in different directions. But I think that David's feeling that he needed to protect me was part his driving force in all of this.

Two days later, my mother was in the kitchen cooking up a storm as we awaited our guests. I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. But we had all agreed that tonight it was going to be Mary Margaret and David, not Mom and Dad. We even invited Regina in an attempt to make it feel less awkward. Yeah, who was I kidding, she was family and she needed to know what was going on as much as we did.

"Can I help with something?" I offered to my mother who was standing in the kitchen talking with Regina. Henry was upstairs playing video games. David was on the couch getting ready to throw something at the television.

"Aw, come on, ref, you didn't see that?" He yelled at no one in particular.

"No, honey, I'm just waiting on the chicken to finish baking, why don't you go join your fath – uh David. Maybe you can keep him from breaking the TV." I looked over to David who was clearly upset with whatever sporting event he was watching. I made my way over to him and pulled the remote control from his hand. I tossed the remote onto the coffee table as I sat down on the couch next to him. Without missing a beat, he put his arm around my shoulders pulling me closer to his side planting a gentle kiss to the side of my head.

"Who's winning?" I asked when I looked over to see that he was watching a hockey game.

"Not Boston," he answered with a bit of a disgusted attitude. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed watching the hockey games. Where else could you watch a bunch of guys beat the crap out of each other over a little black puck. It was even more fun to watch a game with David; he always became so animated pulling me right along with him.

"Oh, Yes!" He yelled and put his left hand up in the air toward me.

"Oh, yeah! Tied it up!" I gleefully yelled back and I reached up with my right hand giving him a high five.

I barely heard Regina rattle off some kind of sarcastic remark and my mother laugh, but that wasn't what caught my attention. No, it was the sudden knock at the door that made me look up and quickly push away from my father.

"I'll get it." Henry exclaimed as he barreled down the stairs toward the door. I guess he was a little excited to meet my foster brother.

"Here we go," I swallowed hard. I nodded to Henry giving him the ok to open the door and invite our guests into the apartment. JC moved through the door holding his girlfriend's hand as she was only a half of a step behind him. He gave me a quick one armed hug then reached to shake David's hand. But it was his girlfriend who caught my attention. I looked at her so hard that I'm sure that I was drilling holes in her head.

"Emma, David, good to see you again. Thank you so much for the invitation." I could only nod. I'm sure that I must have looked like a fool when my lower jaw fell open and I couldn't lift it to close.

JC turned to his girlfriend placing his arm around her waist. "Please, I would like to introduce you my girlfriend. Emma, David, Mary Margaret this is…"

"Lily…" I finished for him. I couldn't believe it. The girl who I thought was going to be my best friend. She was the girl that I couldn't forgive because she lied to me. She told me that she was like me, and maybe she was, I didn't take the time to listen to her. She asked me to forgive her, but I didn't. I walked away. I realized when I was older that was a mistake, but by then it was too late. And now, here she was, standing in my living room.

"Hi, Emma." I wasn't sure if she was going to smile or cry. Hell, I wasn't sure if I was going to smile or cry. I stood there, frozen, just staring at the woman. I finally, let a shy smile cross my lips. I moved in to wrap my long lost friend in a hug.

"Apparently they know each other," I heard Regina's sarcasm across the room. I let out a small laugh as I pulled away and turned to my family.

"David, Mary Margaret, you already know JC. JC this is Regina," JC stepped across the room and greeted Regina with the same kiss to the hand as he did to my mother so many days ago. I turned to Lily, "Lily, this is David, Mary Margaret, and Regina." They all made quick greetings. I pulled Henry in front of my body and placed my hands on his shoulders. "And this is my son, Henry."

"Wow, what a handsome young man." I smile to Lily's compliment.

JC extended his hand, "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Henry. You're mother has told me so much about you."

Henry shook his hand, "You too." He smiled.

We all stood there for a couple of minutes in an awkward silence, just looking at each other not knowing what to say. Finally, my mother broke the mood by asking Henry to set the table and David to escort our guest to more comfortable surroundings. I took the opportunity to pull Lily out to the hallway for a private but much needed apology.

"Why…how are you here?" I asked her closing the door behind me.

"Emma, I thought about that night so many times. Thinking about what I should have done different. Hoping that one day I would eventually find you and get the chance to sincerely apologize. I would remember the angry look on your face as you walked away." She stopped talking. I guess it was to see if I was really listening to her. "We promised, friends forever."

I finally looked up from the spot on the floor that I was staring at intently. "I realized too late that pushing you away was a mistake," her face softened a little. "The damage was already done. There was no going back, or so I thought. Lily, I should be the one to apologize to you. I've thought about you too, you know."

"Really?" her smile brightened.

"Yeah, I often wondered what became of you. Where you were, what you were doing. If I would ever see you again and have the chance to say that I'm sorry."

"I know that it certainly hasn't been an easy life for you, Emma."

I shifted my weight to lean against the railing, "No. No it hasn't. But it has gotten better. What about you? How did you hook up with JC?"

"Believe it or not, you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, once I became a detective in Augusta, I decided to use my resources to find you. It was about time that I made things right. Knowing that you were in the system, that's where I started my search. I had set up a meeting with JC to see if I could get your last known address." I crossed my arms as I listened to her finish her story, "To make a long story short, JC revealed to me his relationship with you in the past and his desire to find you as well and we began working together. One thing led to another and here we are."

"Second chances can be a hard thing to come by," and I couldn't help but to think that was exactly what was happening.

"Not when you have hope," Lily responded with a smile.

I jumped when I heard the door open. Henry popped his head out,"Gra..uh..Mary Margaret said that dinner is ready, are you two about ready to come in?"

I put my lips together in a thin smile, "Yeah, kid. We're coming."


	9. Chapter 9 -Always Am

**I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I actually took the time to re-outline the entire thing as I changed the way that I wanted it to end. Once again, thank you for all of the reviews, feedback, and favorites. Enjoy.**

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Chapter 9 - Always Am

Well, you could say that dinner went off without a hitch. If that is what you would call the looks of despair that would cascade my mother's face every time she heard a story about me stealing, being chased by the police, or breaking into someone's summer home. Yeah, you guess it. She asked Lily how we met all those years ago. Oh, don't misunderstand me. My parents knew that my life before Storybrooke wasn't all sunshine and roses. But in the past week they heard how I was nearly beaten to death and before that I was a thief and who was breaking and entering at the age of 14.

Every couple of minutes or so I would steal a glance to Henry . He was holding on to every word that our guests had said as Lily told our story and JC told some other stories. Which really scared the hell out of me. It was then that I understood the grimaces that Mary Margaret was making, because as mother you never want to think about your kid having to do any of that to survive. Hell, you never want your kid to do any of that period.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Regina looking down at her watch, "What time is it?" I asked.

"Nine o'clock," she gave a gentle smile to Henry, "Are you coming with me or are you staying here tonight?"

I could see on his face that he wanted to stay at the loft, but another round of being interrogated by my parents was about to happen, and frankly he would better in his own bedroom tonight. "Henry, why don't you go with Regina, I'll pick you up from school tomorrow and we can hang out for awhile, just you and me. What do ya say, kid?"

He smiled at that suggestion, "Ok, let me get my bag." He hurried away up the stairs. I knew that he had a lot of questions for me about my time with Lily and JC. I had no problem giving him the answers, sort of, I would definitely sugar coat them. But he needed it to be just me and him. And, quite honestly, I was fortunate that he still enjoyed our one on one time. Most teenagers were looking for ways to avoid their parents.

"Are you two driving back to Augusta tonight?" I heard my mother ask.

JC and Lily were getting up to make there exit as well, "No, we're staying at Granny's tonight then heading to Boston in the morning. We both have the next couple of days off, so we decided to take a little weekend getaway." He put his arm around her and she snuggled into to him like they were newlyweds going on their honeymoon. I pushed down the nauseous feeling as I rolled my eyes and looked away.

I sat back in my chair with my head down and my hand lifted to my earlobe absentmindedly playing with my earring. "Oh that sounds so romantic," my mother continued. "I wish that David and I had the time to get away like that, every now and then."

I couldn't stifle the groan that escaped my mouth. "Well you guys have a safe trip to Boston, tomorrow." I jumped up and ushered them to the door. "We're supposed to get a little more snow overnight."

"Yeah, that is why we brought Lily's jeep, it's not great on gas, but it has four wheel drive."

"Hey, I'll walk you guys out." Yes, I was rushing them out. This night was starting to wear on me. I really didn't care what vehicle they brought or that they were escaping to Boston for a romantic getaway. I just wanted them to leave. JC nodded to my offer and turned toward David and Mary Margaret. He thanked them for their hospitality then we made our way downstairs. "Are you guys all setup at Granny's?"

"Yeah, we stopped to check in on our way through town. I like that little place, it's quiet." He leaned in to give me a hug, "it's been great spending some time with you, super swan."

"Oh, it has been good to see you too," I pulled away and turned to give a small shy hug to Lily. "And you, I never thought that I would see you again."

"It was wonderful to see you again, Emma."

We gave our final goodbyes, and I waved to them as they pulled away from the building. Just as I was reentering the building, Henry and Regina were leaving. "Hey, Kid, be good."

He gave me a quick hug and a kiss to the cheek, "always am." I just shook my head as he ran off to climb into Regina's car.

"Goodnight, Emma…"

"Goodnight, Regina," I turned to enter the building when I heard Regina call me back.

"Emma,"

"Yeah," I spun on my heel.

"Was that her? The friend that you had when you were a kid?" Wow, Regina was more observant that I gave her credit for being. The night that Regina and I were looking for the Snow Queen; when she had Sidney trapped in the mirror; I had vaguely told her the story of Lily and I. Although I didn't go into great detail, I told her about a friend that lied to me and I walked away from only to feel guilty for never forgiving. That was the night I told Regina that I thought that she and I could be friends. That I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

"Yeah," I looked back to see that their car had already vanished down the street. "That was her."

Regina gave a slight nod. I looked down and away for a few short seconds before I opened the door and climbed the stairs back to the loft.

I entered the apartment to see that my parents were trying to keep themselves occupied while they awaited my return. Of course, they were standing next to the sink washing the dishes where they had the perfect view of the door.

"So?" David spoke up first. The dish in his hand was no doubt already dry but he continued to wipe it with the towel without taking his eyes off of me.

"So what?" I kicked off my boots opting for my more comfortable slider sandals instead. I grabbed a stack of plates from the table on my way past carrying them to the kitchen to be washed.

"So, what did she say? Is she going to put a tail on Gold?" He had finally given up his dry plate for a new one from the strainer. Again not looking at what he was doing but rather staring intently at me like I was going to tell him the secret to life.

"Oh, yeah, that." I sat on one of the stools next to the island reaching for one of the cookies that my mother had made for dessert. I was surprised that there were any left; I'm guessing that either Regina or my mother had stopped Henry from finishing them off. "No."

"N…no?" He put his plate down and flipped the towel over his left shoulder. "Why not?"

"Because I didn't ask her." It was a matter of fact statement. No elaboration. I just took another bite of my cookie. I watched David cut a hard look to Mary Margaret. She let go of a little chuckle of know while she poured me a glass of milk to go with my cookie. She knew what I was doing. She knew that I was playing one of my favorite father-daughter games called, simply, Frustrate Dad.

Mary Margaret slid the glass of milk in my direction. With a cookie in one hand, I reach for the glass with other. What I didn't expect was for David to pull the glass away from me as quickly as Mary Margaret put it there. "What do you mean you didn't ask her?"

"Hey, give me my milk back!" I swung my arm toward him in an attempt to grab it back but he only pulled it further back from my reach.

"You can have your milk back, when you answer my question." I attempted one more grab, but this time he took a full step backward out of my reach.

"Mom," Yep, I was playing the whining child card. The game was supposed to be Frustrate Dad, not Frustrate Emma.

"No, I didn't ask her." I finally relented giving them a more serious answer.

"Why?"

"I don't trust her."

"You don't trust her?" David repeated with a tone of disbelief.

"I don't understand," Mary Margaret was finally being more than a spectator. "I thought that she was your friend. That you two were…"

"Did you not hear the story tonight?" I thought that it was obvious, but maybe not. "From the first moment that we met, she lied to me. We spent a grand total of about 8 hours together before her dad caught us in their summer home and he had me shipped back to social services. Yeah, she begged me to forgive her that night and I didn't. I felt guilty for a lot of years after that. But seeing her today for the first time since that night, hearing her apologize to me out in the hallway then telling all of you, telling Henry the story. It all came flooding back and I was angry all over again."

"What did you two talk about out there?" Mary Margaret asked abandoning the rest of the dishes.

"Nothing really, I apologized to her for walking away that night and she to me. I asked her how she hooked up with JC. She said that they had a mutual connection through me, they were both looking for me and when he told her of our past they began to work together to find me."

David crossed his arms, "so you think that they are plotting something?"

"I don't know. I mean, I don't really know what they would have to plot, but it all seems just a little too coincidental. No, I think the best way to figure out what Gold is up to is for me to go see for myself."

"I don't know if I like the idea of you going after Gold by yourself. And…and what about the town line?" David was putting on his concerned Dad face now and Mary Margaret was following suit.

"The town line has never been a barrier for me before, or Henry. And I was immune from the Snow Queen's spell. So I don't think that they town line will be much of a problem for me. But just in case, I'll take something with me that belongs in Storybrooke."

"Ok, so humor me a minute," I looked over to my mother. I raised my eyebrows urging her to continue with her question. "Say you leave town for Augusta and you find Gold, then what? What are you hoping to find? So far, the only thing that has even fueled this investigation, as it were, is the fact that he went to see JC to access your file and you have a picture of him talking to some woman. You said yourself that he already knows everything about your past. It's been weeks since he left and he can't even get back into town. What has you so riled up that you feel the need to track him down and confront him?"

"First of all, I never said anything about confronting him. And secondly, I don't know. I just have this feeling in my gut that he is up to something and I would rather be proactive rather than wait for him to unleash some kind of fresh hell on us. But I just can't help but to think that JC showing up wasn't an accident. He is here for a reason with Lily in tow and it has something to do with Gold. Now, can I have my milk back?"

David slid my glass of milk back in front of me so that I could finally dunk my cookie. "So when do you plan on leaving?"

"Tomorrow, after I pick Henry up from school?" I was already working my plan out in my head.

"Emma, I don't think that it is a good idea to take him with you…"

"I'm not," I waved off my mother's protest. "But I promised him some one on one time tomorrow and intend to not break that promise."

They both nodded in agreement, but David spoke up with the next burning question. "What item are you going to take with you to get back into Storybrooke?"

"Oh…ummm…" That was a small tidbit that I hadn't thought about, mainly because I didn't think that getting back into town would be an issue for me. But I quickly turned to scan the apartment for something important enough to Storybrooke that it would allow my passage back into town.

"This…" I turned toward my mother's voice and saw her pulling at her finger. "My ring."

She grabbed for my hand and slid her wedding ring onto my finger. "No…Mom…I can't…this is your wedding ring."

"And you are my daughter. Both of which better be returned to me in one piece. Do I make myself clear?"

Yeah. She made herself perfectly clear. I gave her a small but tender smile. I left my milk and cookie to give them a hug. As I leaned into my mother, I felt my father wrap his strong arms around the both of us. He moved his right hand to cradle my head like he would always do. He planted a soft kiss to the side of my head before he whispered a concerned, "be careful."

"Always am," I whispered back before I retreated to my room to prepare for my trip and go to bed. "Thanks guys."


	10. Chapter 10 - Nightmares

**WARNING - This chapter talks about some rather violent abuse. If you cannot handle that or do not want to read that part, please skip down to the horizontal line. If you skip it but want to know the jest of it for future plot purposes, please let me know, I have a summary written up that will happily send to you. **

**This chapter is a little shorter, but important. Enjoy. As Always, thank you everyone for your feedback. I am overwhelmed by such an awesome response and group of readers/supporters. Please continue to review. Your reviews are what keep me going. So without further Ado...Chapter 10.**

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Chapter 10 - Nightmares

The street was dark and desolate. Almost deserted, papers blew between the empty buildings. It wasn't any place that I recognized. The buildings looked like they had been erected at a 15 degree angle. All of the bricks were fire red. All of the windows were painted black.

"You were supposed to die," It was a low gruff frightening voice that said the words that I heard from behind. I spun around quickly and saw no one.

"Because you survived, we have to go back." Again the voice was behind me and when I turned no one was present. Just the sound alone sent chills down my spine.

I began to walk down the street; I was looking for any sign of anything that would look familiar. Where was I? Why was everything so dark? I heard another voice, only this time it was the sound of a kid. I turned toward the sound. There he was, a kid running through the intersection ahead of me.

"Henry" I called. What was he doing here? "Henry, answer me."

"You were supposed to die." The voice was behind me again, and again I spun to face it seeing nobody. But it didn't completely pull my mind away from the kid that could only be Henry.

"Henry," It sounded like a scream in my head but came out as only a whisper. Why was he running away from me?

"Because you survived, we have to go back." It called again, this time it was deeper and colder.

"Henry, don't leave me…Henry."

"Back to hell with everyone," the sky was turning a morbid shade of gray.

Suddenly I was transported back to the Cooper's living room. I felt the fist connect with my face. Lying on the floor, a foot thrust itself into my abdomen; over and over again. Tears were streaming down my face. I screamed for help, but it no one could hear me.

"What do you think of yourself now, Savior?" Mr. Cooper's voice boomed. I felt another kick to my side. I curled myself into the fetal position.

"Dad, get the hell off of her!" Was that JC's voice that I heard? A baseball bat connected with my shoulder.

"How the hell are you supposed to save an entire kingdom…Savior?" The word savior was announced with such venom. Another blow to my gut; "Huh, savior? I think that you need to save yourself first."

"Dad, get the hell off of her." The bat was swinging in my direction again.

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There was a loud bang in the hallway of the hotel that ultimately ended my nightmare. I sat up in my bed quickly. I was breathing heavy, sweat pouring from my forehead. Tears were streaming my cheeks. I looked around the room to reacquaint myself with my surroundings. It took a minute for me to remember that I was in a hotel room in Augusta, Maine. I reached for my phone to check the time. 3:37 am.

I closed my eyes, trying to remind myself that it was only a dream and trying ease my breathing. "It was only a dream," I kept repeating to myself. Maybe if I said it enough I would start to believe it. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and calm down. I have had nightmares before but nothing as real as what I had just experienced; part of it being a dream and part being a memory.

I studied my face in the mirror. I wondered how my life had become what it was; I wondered how I survived Mr. Cooper. The sound of my stomach growling pulled me from my reverie. I never did eat dinner. I had flicked the television on as soon as I got back to the hotel room that evening and fell asleep. I remembered an all night grocery store being only a couple of blocks down the street. Maybe a walk in the fresh air would do me some good. If nothing else, I could grab a bag of chips and a soda.

As I walked, I thought about Gold. It had been two full weeks. Two weeks of inconspicuously following Gold around only to get me nowhere. He was living in Augusta running a real estate law practice; mostly drawing up contracts for rental agreements and home purchases. He left Augusta for a couple of days to make a trip to New York. His destination was, of course, Neal's apartment. It had long been rented to a new tenant and all of Neal's belongings had been place in city storage. A public notice had been issued for Neal or next of kin to claim the belongings within a year. I had found the notice when I was digging for clues to find Gold's whereabouts. So there was little doubt that Gold was just doing his part to close up Neal's estate.

During the off time that I had from following Gold, I took it upon myself to do some research on Lily. Unfortunately, I didn't find much that I didn't already know. She was in the foster system and adopted during her teen years. After high school she joined the police academy. Starting out as a beat cop in Boston, she worked her way up to detective finally taking a job for the Augusta Police Department. At one point in time, she had been engaged to be married to someone named Jerszy Wilson; interesting name.

I had finally decided that maybe it was time to go back to Storybrooke. After all, my journey had seemed like a colossal waste of time. I walked around the store thinking about what to do next and although I didn't want to admit it, the answer seemed clear. Nothing was happening. I had worked myself up over nothing. My stomach growled, again. I plucked a bag of chips from the shelf and made my way to the soda coolers.

"I love the smell of the bakery, makes it so hard to pass up the donuts." The voice came from my left. It was a voice that I didn't recognize.

I looked up to see a middle aged man with medium length scraggly hair (that looked like it hadn't been washed in a month) eyeing me up and down. He was wearing a holey T-shirt and pajama bottoms. "I'm sorry?"

"The bakery," he pointed with a nod of his head. "They come in early to make the bread and donuts." Now he was smiling at me. If his look wasn't enough to send me over the edge, his rotten toothed smile definitely was. The pain in my stomach went from hunger to disgust. "What do say, you and I can grab a couple donuts and go get a cup of coffee somewhere?"

Now it was just plain nausea. "I'm sorry," I look at his body from head to toe. My lip curled. I tried to cover by turning it into a slight smile. "As attractive as you are in your…pacman pajamas…I'm afraid I have to pass. Thank you, though…for the offer."

"Are you sure? We can skip the donuts, if that suits you better?"

I was just about to respond with the "leave me alone" fist to face when I heard another voice. "Ah, there you are…did you find what you wanted?"

That's right, Gold had just come to my rescue. He put his hand on the small of my back and gave me his best smile. You know that smile right? The 'I was just able to help you out of a jam and now you owe me' smile. In return I gave him the tight lipped 'kiss my ass' smile. But I kept up the façade, anyway, just to get rid of this creep.

"Yeah, I just wanted something to crunch on for the rest of the trip." Pajama man made a slight groan then turned to walk away. I waited until I knew he was really gone before turning my attention back to Gold. "What the hell are you doing here…at this time of night?"

"I could ask the same of you, dearie, I doubt that Prince Charming would approve of his only daughter traipsing around an all night grocery being hit on by midnight's finest slime balls."

I rolled my eyes, "present company included? I can take care of myself."

"Oh, I don't doubt that. You are pretty handy with that gun of yours. So what are you doing here at this hour, so far from Storybrooke?"

"I was hungry." I wasn't in the mood for his cryptic talk at 4 in the morning. And now that I think about it, why does all of this cryptic stuff have to happen so damn early in the morning?

"No, it's more than that. I don't believe that you traveled all the way to Augusta for a bag of Red Hot chips and a Grape soda."

"Red Hots?" I looked down at my hands. "Damn, I meant to grab barbeque."

"How's Belle?" Clearly he was unamused with my banter.

I studied his eyes for a minute. I pushed my lips into a thin smile, "As well as can be expected. She's been taking care of the library and the shop."

"Has she asked about me?"

I could tell that his missing her was sincere. The longing in his eyes as he spoke of her was a dead giveaway that he wanted to find his way back. The only problem was that she was only a side dish in the meal that fueled his actions. He had never intended to fall in love with her. But he did. "Considering that this is the first time, since you left, that I have been outside of Storybrooke…And, since I don't make it a habit of giving you a call to shoot the breeze…no. She hasn't asked about you."

"But she knows that you came looking for me?" I knew that he was prodding me for an answer as to why I was in Augusta. And yes, it was to look for him. But I was certain that I didn't want him to know my reasoning.

"I don't recall anyone saying I came to look for you. And, the only people who know the reason why I came to Augusta are my parents." Ok. It was a stall tactic. I was feverishly wracking my brain to come up with a quick reason to be here; a reason that did not include him, JC, or Lily.

"And I see you brought something to remember them by." I followed his gaze to my hand. My mother's wedding ring. That was it. I never took it off because I didn't want to risk losing it. But that brought me the perfect excuse. Or at least I hoped it would be the perfect excuse and he would buy it.

I flipped my hand over to admire the antique gold emerald ring that adorned my finger. "Ah, the ring. I brought to a jeweler to be repaired and appraised for my mother. The rock was loose. And with it being such a special family heirloom, I was finally able to talk her into getting it insured. I'm sure that you can understand the importance of insurance."

"Yes, yes. Insurance is important." He raised an eyebrow at me, "and you're wearing it…"

"So I don't lose it." I retorted quickly. "Can you imagine what my father would do to me if I lost his mother's…my mother's ring?" He nodded his head with a smile. "Yeah. Exactly."

"Well, Ms. Swan, I supposed you should be getting back to your hotel, would you like me to walk you?" I eyed him suspiciously. "It is the honorable thing to do."

"No. Thanks. I'll be fine." I reached into the cooler and pulled out the soda that I had wanted ten minutes ago.

"As you wish." He turned to walk away, but then I heard him call back to me. "And Ms. Swan?"

"Yeah," I said half heartedly. What more could this man possibly have to say to me.

"I am not the one that you need to be looking to for answers." Ok. He got my attention. "You need to turn this investigation to your own family and even yourself." He smiled as he turned on his heel and walked away.

He left me standing there, dumbfounded. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

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**Please review...also if there are any scenes that you would like to see written into this story, please let me know. I'm always looking for good ideas and if I can make them work with the outline that I have, I will use it.**


	11. Chapter 11 - Princess Emma

**I didn't proof this because I wanted to get it posted tonight. Over the next couple of days I am going to back through the entire story and fix the errors. I most likely won't have another update until sometime next week. As you read this chapter, I just wanted to say that I had Lily outlined into the story before the actual script title reveal last week. I have no idea which way they are going to go with her, but I wrote this chapter with my theories in mind. If by some miracle of a chance the show goes this way it will be completely coincidental. By the way, enjoy the premiere of Season 4B tomorrow, I for one, cannot wait.**

**Again, a huge shout out to all those who have review, followed, and just plain like my story. You are all AWESOME! And please review the heck out of my story...It keeps me going!**

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Chapter 11 – Princess Emma

I tossed my phone charger and earbuds into the front pocket of my travel bag, I gave one more look around the hotel room making sure that I had packed all of my belongings. It never seemed to fail, though; every time that I had stayed in a hotel room I had always lost or left something behind. I checked the bathroom counter, dresser drawers, and even under the bed. It seemed that I actually had everything, which was a first. I pulled a $20 out of my wallet and laid on the dresser next to the TV for the service staff. Yeah, it was probably a little too much, but I could remember a time when I barely had enough money to stay in a hotel, let alone tip the service staff.

I turned off all of the lights and slung the strap of my travel bag over my shoulder. I jumped back a half of step when I opened the door and saw her leaning against the wall with two coffee shop cups in her hand. "Lily…what the hell are you doing here?"

She held one of the cups out in my direction. "I was hoping that we could go for a walk and talk for a bit before you headed for home." The look on her face was full of hope. Hope that I would take her up on her offer. I looked her up and down; she was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a long sleeve T-shirt and a pair of tennis shoes. Judging by her simple attire I was assuming that she was off duty for the morning. "I brought you a hot chocolate…with cinnamon…JC said that was the way that you like it."

I could hear the trepidation in her voice. Other than the five minutes that we had in the hallway outside of the loft, we hadn't had any time alone to just talk. I am certain that she was afraid that I would shut her out again. And believe me, I thought about it. A big part of me just wanted to tell her to go to the hell. But I regretted it the last time I did that, why would this time be any different. I accepted the hot chocolate with a small smile, "JC's right."

I took a careful sip of the hot drink, it was still very steamy which gave me a good indication that she hadn't been waiting there too long. "How did you know that I would be leaving at this time?" It was kind of a weird question, but damn it, I wanted to know. Was she stalking me?

"I took a guess. JC said that you were going back today, I figured it was about a 2 hour drive and if you're anything like me, you would want to get out on the road as early as possible." Well I guess she was right about that.

We walk together in awkward silence to the front desk where I checked out of my room and handed my bag to the concierge to hold while Lily and I had our little social walk. It was an abnormally warm day for the time year. The sun was shining bright and it seemed that spring was making an early appearance. We walked across the street to a small park and sat on the bench the near the playground. Some local mothers were taking full advantage of the warm weather by bringing their toddlers out to play on the playground while it was free from the older kids who were in school. On the way there we chit chatted about how she met JC and she told me the story of their first date. It was a cute little romantic first date complete with flowers and dancing in the moonlight. I had to laugh because that certainly is not something that I would have expected from JC. I reciprocated with telling her a few 'normal world' tidbits of my relationship with Killian.

I looked over to one mother who had spread a blanket out on the ground and was unpacking a picnic lunch for her and her young daughter. It was the sandwiches that she laid out on the plates that reminded me of the day that Lily and I met. When we sat on the grass overlooking the wealthy summer homes eating sandwiches that we made from the food we purchased with her dad's credit card.

The scene must have reminded her of that as well. I wasn't expecting what came next. "Do you remember what I told you that night before you left with the social worker?"

"Um…what?" Did she really have some unfinished business about that night? I thought that we had put that behind us the night that we had dinner at the loft.

"Remember, when you walked away from me, do you remember what I told you?"

I tried to control the anger that was beginning to build. I really did not want to rehash this, but she was going there. So I decided to engage as calmly as I could. "You said a lot of things that night. So to which are you referring? Um…let's see…is it where you said that you hated your home and that you felt invisible there…or maybe that you were an orphan? Or maybe…that you were just like me?"

She looked away for a brief minute. I could tell that she was trying to hold back the tears that were stinging her eyes as she remembered that night. "Yeah, well. I guess you made your point."

"Sorry," I really didn't mean for contempt to make its way into our conversation.

"So you've been to the Island? Not quite what you expected huh?" She changed the subject.

I furrowed my brow as I looked at her in utter confusion. "Ah…what the hell are you talking about?" Her cryptic way of talking was really starting to piss me off. If I didn't know better, I would have said that she was taking lessons from Mr. Gold. "Lily, if you have something to say to me, then just…say it already! You are talking in riddles that I don't understand, and I'm just getting…pissed."

"The island, you've been to the island." She said again.

I was done with this conversation that was going absolutely nowhere. I stood up tossed what was left of my hot chocolate in the garbage can nearby. "That's it, I've had enough of this…when you decided that your going to actually spit out whatever it is that you want to say, then call me. You have my number now." I called over my shoulder as I began to walk away.

"I'm just like you, I am…" she called out to me using the same words that she used that night. I continued walking "…Princess Emma." I stopped walking. She knew. Oh my god, she knew. But how? My first reaction was fear. My second reaction was to look around that the mothers and toddlers that were in the park. Did they just hear her call me Princess Emma? Was their attention now drawn to me? I felt a touch of relief when none of the mothers were looking in my direction.

I spun on my heel. "What did you just call me?" My words were harsh. "How do you…" I stopped myself as I let logic take over for a minute. "JC…what the hell did he tell you?" I yelled.

Her only response was to sit there in silence while I continued my rant, "What all has JC told you? I want to know, damn it! What are you planning? Huh! What do you two want out of me? Money? Because…sorry sister, I don't have any!"

"Let's just say that Peter was tracking you long before Greg and Tamara came into the picture." Ok. Those were two names that completely took my by surprise.

"Peter? Pan?" I yelled. But I probably shouldn't have. I didn't look to see that the other parents were now watching me intently until I saw Lily wince. "Shit."

Lily quickly closed the gap between us. "Let's take this someplace else," she grabbed my arm and pulled me through the park. I guess was in too much shock to fight her off. It wasn't until we got to the street that I yanked my arm free from her grasp. But it was morbid curiosity that made me follow her to the coffee shop that was in the lobby of my hotel. I'm certain that she picked that place because there were enough people around that I would keep myself from making a scene.

"I told you that I'm just like you." She said sitting down at a table that was in the corner away from the main hustle and bustle of the shop. She sat strategically so that she could see every area of the coffee shop. With her back to the wall there would be no surprises if someone came near us. "I'm Tiger Lily, Princess of the Piccaninny Tribe of Neverland. I was left by the pirates on Marooners' Rock…"

"Yeah, Yeah. I know the story." I rudely interrupted. I needed her to skip to the chase. "How did you get here?"

"Pan brought me here." She paused. I sat back and crossed my arms in an attempt to brace myself for the explanation that Lily was about to give me. She let go of a heavy sigh before she continued. "When Pan saved me from Marooners' Rock, he didn't take me back to my family. Instead he brought me here. He told me that he had a job for me to do and that if I failed he would kill my father, Great Big Little Panther. I had no reason to not believe him. Pan is ruthless."

"Was," I corrected. My demeanor was calmer. "Was Ruthless, he was killed by his son Rumplestiltskin."

She smiled a thankful smile at the news; although I was a little shocked that she did not bulk at my announcement that Peter Pan had a son. "Anyway, my job was to befriend you. He knew that you were the savior and you were destined to bring back the happy endings. And his motives were completely selfish. He only wanted to save himself. But he could only do that with…"

"The heart of the truest believer…" I finished for her. "Henry." I was having a hard time wrapping my head around any of this. Which was saying something considering my lineage and all that I had come to learn in the past 3 ½ years. I put my head down and rubbed my face with my hands. My eyes were still closed when I lifted my head up, "He knew when I was 14 years old." My eyes widened with revelation, "you knew when I was 14 years old! You knew who I was…who my parents were? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh my God, really?" She instantly shrieked back at me. "Do you remember how pissed you were because I lied to you about my family? There was no way in hell that you have believed that story. No, I had to wait until you broke the curse to say anything." I couldn't disagree with her. There was no way that I would have believed her story. It would have just pushed me away sooner. "Anyway, I failed. I found you and lost you in the same day. And it took me over a decade to find you again."

"What about your father?" Thinking of my own father and his brush with death in Neverland, I had to ask. "The chief, I mean."

"I'm assuming that Pan killed him. But I don't know for sure. Pan never came back for me. I never saw him or Neverland again."

I saw the single tear that she shed as she thought about her father. I felt for her, I really did. There was a time when I thought that I was going to lose my father to Peter Pan and Neverland. But I never gave up hope and he was able to return to Storybrooke with us after we saved Henry and the lost boys. "I'm sorry," I whispered. I curled my fingers around her hand in comfort.

"I held on to the hope that if I found you, you would be able to help me get back to Neverland. Maybe bring back my happy ending…"

"I…"

"But by the time I found you…" she continued to talk before I could respond. "You had already been there and back. Greg and Tamara beat me. I don't know how, but if I had to guess, Pan led them. I had failed to become your friend, so he just abandoned me." She quickly wiped the tears that were staining her face.

"Oh Lily…I made a promise to bring back the happy endings. And I know that is different for everyone, and I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it. But you are included in that promise." I gave her a soft smile. Any anger and resentment that I felt toward her was gone. It was time to move passed the past, and look to the future with hope.

"My story is over, Emma. This is where I am destined to be. And somehow, I am to make this world my happy ending."

"No, I don't believe that…" I pulled my hand back from hers, "you can't just give in to Pan. If you want to go back to Neverland and that will make you happy, then I will figure out how to get you there." My anger for Pan was now fueling my motivation. I refused to let him win. "He is dead now, maybe you need to go back and take back your kingdom. And who knows, your father might still be alive and waiting for you."

"Emma, I appreciate what you are doing…" The look in Lily's eyes changed as she began to talk again, "but you have a new job now."

"I'm sorry…what?"

She closed her eyes and took in some air. She pursed her lips to side with a wince; I could tell that she was mentally kicking herself. She knew something and she had just said a little too much to me. "What do you mean…I have a new job?"

"Emma…"

"Tell me, Lily."

"Emma, I don't know exactly." I studied her, now was not the time for my superpower to fail me. "All that I can tell you is that you need to look within yourself and your family. When you do that, it will all be revealed."

She wasn't lying. But I was really starting to get uncomfortable. I suddenly had a lot to think about. I looked at my phone, "I've got to go." We both stood and I leaned in for a hug, "I'll see you soon, ok?" she nodded. I turned and walked away to collect my bag and leave for home, but her words were ringing loudly in my ears. Was it a coincidence that she had just told me the same that Gold at told me at the grocery store at four in the morning? For the second time today, I was left wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean.


	12. Chapter 12 - Ice Cream

**Here's a little Momma Snow for you all. Hope you enjoy. As always at huge shout out to all who have reviewed, favorited, and followed the story. You guys are great. And please remember to review. Your input is what helps me make it better.**

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Chapter 12 - Ice Cream

"Mom, I'm home…" I called out as I entered the apartment. I kicked off my boots onto the mat that was next to the door. I hung my jacket on the back of the chair that was nearest the entry way. It was something that my mother hated. She was always telling me to take my jacket upstairs or hang on the hook. I think on some level I did it subconsciously, just to annoy her. You know, making up for those lost teenage years.

"Mom?" I called again when she didn't answer. I did a quick scan of the room; I didn't see her hiding in a corner anywhere. But I did see my little brother happy playing in his baby walker by the kitchen island.

"I'm upstairs, honey, I just brought up a basket of Henry's clothes. I'll be down in a minute." She finally called back. I nodded in response. Why? I don't know; she couldn't see me. I walked towards Neal. After closer inspection, I noticed that he had thrown all of his toys on the floor then tried to walk over them. Effectively getting himself stuck on a stuffed elephant. I quickly cleared his path by picking up all of the toys and placing them back on the tray of his baby walker. I couldn't help but to smile at the squeal of glee that he let go at the site of all of his toys. Or was it the freedom that had been returned to him; the freedom to toddle about the apartment in his bumper car. "There you go, little bro…vroom vroom."

The drive back from Augusta wasn't too bad. It had given me a lot of time to think about what Gold and Lily had told me. Unfortunately, I had no idea what their advice was supposed to mean. They both told me to look for answers within my family, but that only works when you know the questions.

I had decided to stop at home before heading to the station. After two weeks of living in a hotel room eating take out, the sound of a hot shower and some of my mom's cooking just sounded so appealing. I really didn't think that I could stomach another burger or chicken sandwich. My mother must have been reading my mind because the next thing I heard was her calling from upstairs, "there is some macaroni and cheese in the refrigerator for you. Just throw it in the microwave for a couple of minutes."

I opened the refrigerator door, score! A wide smile crossed my face. It was already dished onto a microwavable plate and everything. "Mom, you're the best…" I mumbled to myself kicking the door closed. "Holy shit!" I jumped when I saw legs sticking out from under the sink. I was so focused on the macaroni and cheese that I didn't see him until was going to put the food in the microwave. I looked over to my brother, as if he was going to tell me who this person was and what he was doing.

"Hello, your Highness," I heard from the voice that was attached to the legs; although I didn't recognize it. I rolled my eyes at the name, though, I really hated when any body spoke to me with regard to my royal status. I wasn't anyone special, just Emma. But rather than waste my breath trying to convince him to just call me Emma, I let it go. The older generation would never listen to my request. Of course neither did the younger generation for that matter. 'They're taught to respect royalty' my father would always say whenever I complained.

"Hi…" I said sheepishly. I looked down at my brother again; he was gnawing on his toy key ring. I raised my eyebrows at him, he was no help. "Mom, do you know that you have legs growing out from under the sink?" I called up the stairs to her.

"Yeah, she knows," legs said in response to my question. I shook my head then I quickly stepped over him to put the food in the microwave.

On my way back to the fridge, I bent down in an attempt to get a look at his face but I only saw arms sticking up into the nest of pipes. "Whatcha doing under there?" I asked over the hum of the microwave oven. I gave up on trying seeing his a face; all that I could see was a belly and legs wrapped in overalls and two arms with hands that were now beating on a pipe. I stepped back over him to the refrigerator, this time pulling open the door to the freezer. "Double score," I whispered to myself nodding my head as I pulled out the new carton of ice cream.

"Clogged trap…" I heard him say when he finished pounding on the pipe.

"Ah…sounds fun." I crinkled my nose, no it really didn't sound like any fun at all. It actually made me wonder why anyone would want to become a plumber.

I reached for a clean spoon from the dish strainer. As I popped the lid off of the ice cream carton, I was drawn toward the sound of my brother squealing again as he guided his walker toward my legs. "Ah ha…you want some little buddy?" I knew that he was eating some solid food now. He was almost a year old. So, yeah, it was about time to teach him about ice cream. I put a little bit on the spoon and moved it to his little mouth. At first he made a scrunched up face at the cold, but then quickly discovered that he loved the stuff. His little mouth dropped open for more. He waved his little arms in the air to gain my attention. "That's good stuff, huh? A lot better than strained peas, isn't it?" He squealed with glee again. I couldn't get enough of that little laugh. I scooped another little bite for him and popped it in his mouth.

"You're microwave beeped," Legs had informed me from under the sink. I was having too much fun sharing the ice cream with my little brother to notice. A spoon for me, a spoon for him.

"Emma…" my mother gasped from the bottom of the step. Oops. I winced. She walked past me and ripped the carton of ice cream from my hand as she went by. "Do not give your brother ice cream." She rapidly put the lid back on the carton and slipped it into the freezer before I could swing my arm around and grab it back.

"What? He likes it…" I looked down at him and gave him a crooked smile. "We weren't supposed to get caught," I whispered to him. He giggled as if he knew exactly what I was saying. "We need to come up with a better plan for next time."

"There better not be a next time." At the same time that she was scolding me for giving Neal ice cream, she was pulling my food from the microwave and setting on the island in an effort to take care of me. It was actually kind of heartwarming; I had never been scolded and loved at the same time. "You're the one who is going to stay up with him when he has a belly ache later." Did she have to add the 'mother' look when she said that sentence?

"He won't have a belly ache," I chastised back to her. "He has milk every day; this milk is just…frozen with…some sugar in it."

She just closed her eyes and shook her head. I could tell that she was less than amused with my line of reasoning. "You're incorrigible; you know that, don't you?

I shot her the charming grin that I had inherited from my father. "Yeah, I know." I took a bite of my macaroni and cheese. "So, what's with legs, down there?" I boosted myself up just little to look down at his legs protruding from beneath the sink. He was a bit difficult to see from my position on the opposite side of the island.

"Oh, that's Zeke."

"Hi…" I heard him yell again from his hidden location.

"Hey," I pushed my brow together giving a confused look to Mary Margaret.

"He's works for Marco. He helps out with the plumbing and HVAC." I threw here the classic head bob that said 'ah, I see, but I really don't care.'

"You're dad called Marco a couple of days when we started having trouble with the sink draining. Any luck down there Zeke?" she asked him. I guess her question was an attempt to make the fact that were talking about him, a little less awkward.

"I'm getting there, your Highness, this trap is a bugger to get off." By the sound of his voice, I pictured this cute slightly overweight old man with white hair and skin wrinkled from years of working in the hot sun. Not much different than Marco actually; just a little shorter and heavier.

"What made you decide to become a plumber?" Ok, I was wondering, I had to ask.

"I know how to do it and it pays good." He answered me quickly. "What made you decide to become a cop?"

"I like to beat people up," I said around a mouthful of macaroni.

"Emma…" The look on my mother's face was priceless. You know that look that kids get on their face when they are embarrassed by their parents? Well, that was the look on her face, times ten. If she could have found a rock to crawl under, she would have been gone. I just shoved another bite of macaroni in my mouth and shrugged. I really didn't think that my answer was all that bad. Besides, I heard him laugh and mumble something about not being surprised.

"So, how was your trip?" I was not surprised that she changed the subject, however I was surprised that it took her this long to ask. Although, it wasn't like I didn't talk to her every night and fill her in on the day's findings, during the time that I was away.

"It was ok. Pretty uneventful, I told you most of what happened over the phone." I pointed down at Legs with my fork and mouthed to my mother that I didn't want to talk about it in front of the plumber. She nodded her head telling me that she understood.

"I'll tell you guys all about it when Dad gets home. That way I don't have to repeat myself." Yeah, that sounded like a good cover to me.

"Oh, here's your ring back." I pulled it off of my finger and handed to her. "The jeweler was able to reset the stone. Good as new, now." I really didn't take the ring to the jewelers to be fixed, but I came up with that excuse when Gold questioned me about it in the grocery store, and it turned out to be a pretty good cover.

"Oh, thanks, honey." She gave me a wink. She didn't have to wink for me to understand. My mother was smart woman; she knew when to play the game. "I'm so glad that I don't have to worry about that stone now. If something would have happened to it, I would have been devastated."

"Yeah, so would Dad." I said just before I shoved the last bite of food into my mouth that I nearly choked on when the loud bang came from under the sink.

"Ha…got it!" Zeke was finally crawling out from under the sink. "Well, here's your problem, it looks like someone dumped a skillet full of hot bacon grease down your drain and it clogged the trap when it cooled down." I kept my eye on him as he slowly pushed himself up from the floor. I was curious to see just close I had gotten the picture of him in my mind. The best way that I could described my imagined image was that a cute little old farmer.

"Bacon grease?" my mother questioned she had a sincerely perplexed look on her face. "Who would have done that?"

"My guess is Henry…" I got up to place my plate on the counter, I had to wait for the plumber to be done before I could wash it. "He's the only one you won't kill…or send the bill to."

"Maybe I'll send the bill to his mother," she snapped back at me as she crossed her arms, before returning her attention to Zeke.

He lifted the disgusting thing toward my mother to show her exactly what he was talking about, "I'm going to take this down to my truck and clean it out." As he talked to her, I studied his face, he familiar look to me, but I couldn't place it. Of course, if he worked for Marco, I had probably seen him around town and never really noticed him before. "I'll be back with it, right quick, your highness. Then I'll get it all put back together."

I leaned on the counter to watch him leave. There was something about him that I couldn't quite explain. It really gave me a weird feeling. "Who did you say he was?" I turned back to my mother.

"Zeke," she answered.

"But who was he in the Enchanted Forest?" I was trying to put a fairytale character name to his face, but it was hard. There were a lot of people that came over in Regina's curse, and a lot more that came over when my parents cast it the second time.

"I don't know," my mother had a puzzled look on her face, like she was trying to remember seeing him thirty years ago. You know, when she had absolutely nothing else to worry about. "Why?" she asked.

"No reason," I shrugged it off. "I was just trying to put his name and face to a story."


	13. Chapter 13 - Break it or not

**For some reason this was a hard chapter to write. I tried to find the exact details on Snow's birthdate but came up empty, so I'm just going with the chapter the way it is. I know that it is in the winter, but that is about it. **

**As always, thank you to my awesome readers. You are all Great. And a bigger thank you to all of those who have reviewed. Happy Once Day! **

**Please remember to review and share your thoughts. **

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Chapter 13 - Break it or Not

The smell of bacon wafted up the stairs lifting me from my rejuvenating slumber. You would think that the smell would wake me because I was hungry. But no; no it woke me because the first thought through my mind was that Henry was cooking and the grease was going to be dumped down the sink drain again. And I still wasn't quite sure on just how serious my mother was about giving me the bill from the plumber. I breathed a small sigh of relief when I looked across the room and Henry was still sleeping.

I slipped out of my bed and quietly made my way down the stairs to the kitchen. My father was the one who was making breakfast this morning. It looked like the usual was on the menu, pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. "Where's mom?" I asked. I rubbed my face as I slid onto one of the bar stools by the island.

"Well, good morning to you, too." His tone was playful as it usually was with me in the morning. By now, everyone who lived in apartment knew that I was not a morning person. I watched him flip the pancakes then reach for a mug to fill with a morning refreshment.

"Sorry, good morning." I finally returned, through a yawn.

He gave me a good morning smile and placed a cup of coffee in front of me. "She's still sleeping; Neal was up a couple of times throughout the night with gas pains, so I thought that I would just let her sleep."

What were the odds that the kid would have had gas pains last night, huh? I squinted and tried to hide my face from my father's view by putting my head down. I knew where this was going to go. "Feeling guilty about something?" I heard him ask.

I looked up quickly with my best look of innocence. "What? Me? No…what would I have to feel guilty about?" I held strong to my confidence that Neal's not sleeping well was not my fault.

"Oh, I don't know…" He put both hands on the counter to support his weight as he leaned in my direction. "…maybe giving your brother ice cream yesterday?"

I shrunk back in my seat a little. "I still say that he has milk all of the time, and what I gave him was just frozen milk. I am in no way responsible for his little bout of gas."

He let out a little laugh, "Yeah, I heard that was your reasoning." I smiled like a little girl when he flashed me his charming grin and gave me a wink. I don't know what it was about my parents, but they both had this way of bringing out the little girl in me. He placed a generous helping of pancakes, eggs and bacon on plate and pushed it my direction. "I want you to meet me at Gold's shop around 1, if that's ok. Do you have any plans?" I was grateful for the quick change of subject.

"No, I should be ok with that…" I shoved a piece of bacon in my mouth. "…unless a call comes in that needs my attention. Why?"

I watched him look around the room to make sure that we were still alone; a sure tell sign that what he was about to say was not going to be good. "Today is your mother's birthday…" And I was right. I put my hand up to interrupt him. The little girl Emma that was pulled out of me a minute ago by my father just ran straight back into me and was hiding behind the legs of adult Emma.

"Whoa, stop right there. She hates to celebrate her birthday." I wasn't kidding. If I had the story correct, her birthday was the same day that her mother died after being poisoned by Cora. I believe that my mother was 13 years old at the time and she hasn't celebrated or even acknowledged her birthday since. With the exception of year that Johanna had sent her a gift that was her tiara. Anyway, if he was planning something, I did not want to be on the brunt end that backlash.

"No, you're right…" I could see the signs of hope developing in his eyes, "but I think that we can make it happy for her again."

"Seriously? You really want to go there?" I'm not sure what was going through his mind. But I did know that the last thing that he would ever want to do was hurt my mother. And I didn't like the way that his face fell when I rejected his idea. He looked like a sad little boy who was just told that goldfish had died. So I decided to go with it and hear him out. "What did you have in mind?" His smile returned. I closed my eyes and shook my head as I realized that I had just been played by my father. Wait a minute; aren't the kids supposed to manipulate the parents to get what they want? Not the other way around?

"I'm going to lunch with your mother at Granny's. After that, I want you to meet me at Gold's shop. I want to be there with you when you to help you pick out the perfect gift for her. But this gift is going to be from you, and just you." Wow, he seemed determined on that fact.

"Ok why?" I asked.

"I have the whole day planned out." He started to explain his plan but suddenly summed it up with what I already knew. "You're ok to meet me at 1?"

I heard the footsteps, so I knew why he had an abrupt change, I responded with a quick "yep." I looked up to see my mother approaching. She greeted him with first a warm hug and then a passionate kiss. "Ugh," I moaned. "Your daughter does not need to see this first thing in the morning." I said it in a sing songy voice. As much as I hated to witness these moments between these two, I really loved them at the same time. I was enamored with the fact that they were so in love and still had these moments. Nevertheless, my complaint was met with the response of a dish towel hitting me in the face. Even while being locked into a kiss with my father, my mother still had perfect aim. So I scrunched the towel in a ball and threw it back at them.

They pulled away from the kiss, but Mary Margaret stayed engulfed in David's arms. She laid her head on his shoulder but her face was turned toward me. "Good morning, sweetheart."

"Morning, Mom." Calling them mom and dad had seemed so natural anymore. There was a time when I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to call them by their proper titles. There were so many times, in foster homes, that I was forced to call my foster parents Mom or Dad (because it was the proper title for them, blah, blah, blah) and it never felt right. To me, those were titles that needed to be earned, and most foster parents, sure as hell, did not earn them. Sure there may have been a foster home here and there that was good, and I felt more comfortable with the foster parents, but not on the level that I had now. They were not my parents. But the two people standing in front of me, who were showing their love for each other, at the same time, were showing their love for me. They were my mom and dad.

My parents finally let go of their embrace and proceeded with breakfast and the morning routine. "So, we didn't get a chance to talk about your trip last night. What did you find out?" David asked.

As I finished up my breakfast and they began to eat theirs I filled them in on all of the details of my late night/early morning run in with Mr. Gold. Yeah, I left out the details of the slime ball who was hitting on me. David was pissed off enough about me being in the grocery store by myself at four in the morning. But his anger soon refocused to Lily when I told them her story and involvement with Peter Pan and my teenage life.

"So Peter Pan brought Lily here to watch over you?" he asked. He put is fork down and with each arm on the table on either side of his plate, he fingers curled into fists.

"Not really to watch over me, per se, more like to keep tabs on me, so that he would know exactly where to find me and Henry when it was time." My parent's eyes were locked on me. "He always knew of my destiny, and he always knew that my child would have the heart of the truest believer."

"And Lily knew the whole time, too," I heard the hint of feeling betrayed that was in Mary Margaret's comment, "she knew exactly who you were, who we were." My only response was to nod my head; "and she wanted to use you to get back to Neverland."

"Yeah, I suppose." I shrugged. "But I walked away from her that night. I never gave her the chance to succeed."

"No, don't you dare," the shrillness followed by the sound of authority in my father's voice scared me a little. I looked up at him with wide eyes giving way to a slight sense of fear that a child being scolded would have had. "Don't you dare blame yourself for her not succeeding with Pan's plan!"

"But Dad, if I would have just given her the chance…"

"The chance for what…" he cut me off, "the chance to get you killed by Peter Pan. The chance to never break the curse…" it was the next part that stung a bit, "…the chance to never have Henry, the chance to never find us. No, Emma, you never asked for this. You never asked for any of it." He poke out his index finger on his left hand and hammered it on the table in emphasis as he made his point. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and let you blame yourself for Lily and Peter Pan not succeeding in their plans to kill you and Henry so that they may have eternal life." I sat there shocked, listening to my father's rant. I don't think that I have ever heard him raise his voice like that before. And although I know it wasn't directed at me, I still couldn't help the small feeling of disappointing him that washed over me.

"Charming, you need to calm down." My mother had placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"I will not calm down," He turned to face her. "Our daughter has lived a life of hell, masterminded by two men with Daddy issues."

"Whoa, wait a minute. That's it!" I interjected with a yell that got both of their attention. "Peter Pan never wanted me to break the curse!" In that instant it was all so clear to me. Well, most of it anyway. I still wasn't sure how looking to my family for answers fit into all of this, but I now knew a little more about what I was looking for.

My parents had their eyes locked on me waiting for an explanation. "So, Gold created the curse to get to this world to find Neal…Bae…whatever. Once here, he used me to break then curse and then again to find Neal. He had it all planned out. But Pan, didn't want any of that to happen. Because he knew that Rumple finding Bae, would ultimately lead to his death…"

"So if you never broke the curse, then Gold would have never found Neal," my father finished the sentence for me. He looked like he had just been slapped in the face.

My mother's expression was not much different than my father's, "So, let me see if I understand this correctly," she started. I could tell that she was trying to wrap her head around all of this; "so you're saying that Pan knew that Gold was going to use you to find Neal." She looked to me for confirmation and I nodded my head, "Pan also knew that your child would have the heart of the truest believer, which he needed to save himself from dying. Also, Pan knew that if you came to Storybrooke and broke the curse that would lead Gold killing him? So he needed to prevent that by keeping you away."

"Exactly," I responded with a nod, "when I gave Henry up for adoption, it made it all so clean for Pan. All he would have had to do was kidnap Henry from Regina. As long as I didn't know where Henry was and Neal didn't know about Henry, then Pan would have been able to make his move and would have succeeded with his plan."

"Ok, so we know that Pan was using you for Henry to save himself and didn't want the curse to be broken. And Rumple was using you to find Neal and did want the curse broken," my father summed it up quite nicely.

"Well we know that Gold is the one who won that battle." My mother interjected. "So now what?"

"Now we have to figure out how JC fits into all of this?" I said. I had this feeling that we had somehow only figured out a piece of the puzzle. No, there was definitely more to this little mystery. It seemed all to coincidental that JC as involved with Lily, Lily was involved with pan, pan was involve with rumplestiltskin, and they all knew and/or used me at one point in time.

The more that I thought about it, the more convinced I was that JC and Lily had a much bigger part in all of this, that that is what I had to figure out next; but how? I was startled out of my thoughts when I heard a knock on the door. I looked up to my parents, "who is that?"

David jumped up quickly, "Oh, that's probably Zeke. I asked him to meet me here this morning; I have some work for him to do at the station."

"Work? What work?" I spun around on my chair following David to the door with my eyes, "don't you think that you should have talked with me about having work done at the station?"

"Don't worry, dear," he called back to me. "We already talked about replacing the fuse box with a breaker box, I just finally found someone to do it."

"Oh yeah," I now remembered that conversation that we had a couple of weeks ago. "Did the mayor approve it?" I turned to look at my mother.

She smile, "Yeah that was one of my last official duties before turning the office back over to Regina."

I put my attention back to my plate. I waved my hand in the air, "Carry on then." I yelled back to him. I heard him laugh as he opened the door to greet Zeke.

"Wait," I turned back to the door to catch my father, but I was too late. He had already grabbed his coat and was out the door with his new friend. I furrowed my brow as I looked over to my mother, "I thought Zeke as a plumber?" She just shrugged her shoulders and began to clear the dishes.


	14. Chapter 14 - Paperwork

**Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all of my loyal readers! Here is the next installment. Enjoy. And as always, please review and tell me what you think.**

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Chapter 14 – Paperwork

After my morning chat with my parents, my day started with one call after another. The first was a call from the school about two high school kids getting into a fight on the bus. Apparently, according to school policy, any fighting on school property was a reportable offense; which meant nothing to me except for paperwork.

The next call was about a shattered window at Sneezy's pharmacy. Apparently the snow plow kicked up a rock that flew into the window. In past couple of weeks the snow events had started to fade away to make way for spring, but there were a couple of squalls that came through leaving 2 or 3 inches on the road that needed to be plowed away. Again it didn't mean much to me accept for more paperwork. Paperwork that was necessary for insurance purposes. Without a police report, the insurance wouldn't pay for the replacement window.

The final call of the morning was a domestic call that led me to William Perry's home. Will Perry was this world's name for the boy or man, I guess, who cried wolf. Yeah, you guessed it, he was hearing strange growling sounds in his back yard and called to report a stray dog. So I had to hike around his five acres of wooded property looking for the stray dog, which I never found. So the call ended up just producing more paperwork. I stopped at Granny's to pick up a hot chocolate before I headed back to the station to fill out all of the damned paperwork that the morning created.

"Hey," I non-enthusiastically announced my presence to my father who was sitting at his desk reading the newspaper. I did a double take at him. Reading the paper, why I did take all of the calls this morning and he was sitting there reading the newspaper?

"Oh, hey," he looked up from the article he was reading to flash me a smile.

"Is there a reason that you didn't turn off the call forwarding to my phone?" I asked as I walked passed him. I didn't try very hard to hide my frustration at running around all over town today while he was reading the newspaper.

"Oh, sorry about that," he apologized as he got up to follow me into my office. "I got so involved with showing Zeke what I needed done, that I forgot to turn it off. I'm guessing that there were a couple of calls that came in?"

"Yeah, just a few." I let out an apologetic sigh, "It's fine. I just had to deal with Mr. Perry today." I didn't need to say anymore than that, he knew that Mr. Perry always put me in a foul mood. It seems that even in this world he liked to make false claims. The twist being that he was schizophrenic and genuinely believed that something was lurking in the shadows trying to get at him.

I tossed my notebook aside and set my hot chocolate down on the desk. I peeled away my jacket and hung it on the hook on the wall. "Speaking of Zeke," I sat down at my desk to begin my work, "where is he? He certainly wasn't in the wiring closet as I walked past…" I eyed my dad suspiciously, "…is there a different fuse box somewhere that he is replacing?" I think that my sarcasm was enough to make it known that I didn't believe, for one minute, David's fuse box excuse this morning.

"Emma, he's a plumber, why would he be changing a fuse box?" He reached down to move my drink so that he didn't knock it over as he perched himself on the corner of my desk.

"Ok, so if he's not changing a fuse box, then what is he doing?" I put my face down into my palms and rubbed my eyes for a couple of seconds before I reached for my drink and took a sip.

"I have him setting up a perimeter waterfall décor in the town meeting hall for your mother's party tonight." I nearly choked on my hot chocolate.

"I'm sorry," I finally cleared my mouth of the hot liquid. "Mom's what?" He couldn't really have been planning a party for my mother's birthday. Could he? The one day of the year that she would just as soon skip over.

"Her surprise party, tonight at the town meeting hall; I thought that I would outline the walls with thin streamed water fall. Zeke is finishing up the plumbing so once we fill it with water, it should be ready." I'm sure what he had in mind was going to be beautiful, but I couldn't get past the 'birthday party for my mother' part of the plan.

"And that lame ass excuse about a fuse box was the best that you could come up with?" He went to answer me but I waved my hand in his face to stop him, I wasn't done. "Never mind that; do you have a death wish?" He looked at me completely dumbfounded as I continued. "Do you lie awake at night trying to come up with your next bad idea?"

"Emma, I really think that together we can make her birthday a happy occasion. We can change it for her." I was listening to him; he was trying so hard to convince me to go along with his plan. I had to admit it sounded romantic and loving, but I had seen how adamant my mother had been in the past about not wanting to celebrate her birthday. "Think about it, Emma. In the past she only had heartbreak for her birthday, just the memory of her mother dying, nothing or no one else. But now she has you, me, your brother, and all of her friends. Things are different here; maybe her birthday can be different for her here too."

"Alright, alright." I conceded to him. "Maybe you're right. What do you need me to do?"

"Ah ha…" He stood from his chair, smiling from ear to ear. He wrapped his arm loosely around my neck and pulled my head to his lips giving me a light kiss. "You, my girl, won't be sorry."

"Yeah well, if she goes all ape shit, all bets are off and I'm throwing you under the bus." He smiled at me and gave me a wink that I had begun to notice that he reserved for only me. "Hey, shouldn't you be at Granny's right now?"

He looked down at his watch. "Yeah, I guess so…" He replied as he scrambled to get his coat. Before he left he lifted his arm and pointed a finger in my direction. "We still on for Gold's at 1:00?" I nodded. "Good. See you then, love you, princess."

I rolled my eyes at the name, "love you too." I called after him. I smiled to myself as I thought about his plan. His sincere love for my mother and her happiness was the driving force behind this party for her. And as much as I wanted to abide by her wishes that she made well known in years past, I believed that my father was onto something and that he was right. Together we could turn her birthday into a happy occasion. The thought of actually seeing my mother happy on her birthday carried me into the job that was lying on my desk waiting to be completed.

"Excuse me, Princess?" I was so wrapped up in my paperwork that I didn't hear Zeke enter the station room. He jumped back a bit when I looked up abruptly. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt you."

I threw my pen down on the desk. "No need to apologize Zeke." I gave him a gentle smile. He seemed like such a kind older man; a man who was just trying to make a good living and live a joyous life. "What can I do for you?"

"I was looking for the Prince. I finished the pipe work for tonight, filled it with water and tested it. I thought that maybe he would like to see it before he signed off on the scope of work."

"Oh, he went to lunch with my Mom." I thought about it for a minute. I didn't want to call or text him. I feared that pulling him away from their lunch date would only give my mother reason to be suspicious. "How about I take a look at it, if it meets my approval, I'll sign off on it."

The look of hesitation on his face was hard to miss. This was an older man set in his professional ways, David was the one who hired him and David was the one that he wanted to sign off on the work. "Don't worry about my Dad, I'll handle him." I assured him as I followed him across the street to the meeting hall.

"It's good to see that you have settled into your family and have accepted them into your life," I shot him a confounded look; his comment caught me a little off guard. I decidedly let the comment go, chalking it up to my royal status, there were so many people in Storybrooke who knew our family from the Enchanted Forest because my parents were their rulers. But just because people knew of them didn't necessarily mean that my parents knew all of their people. That would be like a famous celebrity knowing each of one of their fans; it was impossible. I followed him into the meeting hall. He flicked the switch to the water fall as we entered the room. It took my breath away, it was so beautiful. Each wall was lined so that it looked like the walls were made of water. Accent lights of different colors shined through the water giving it a rainbow effect.

"This is what my father had you doing for tonight?" I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was perfect. The sound of the water was relaxing, the colors cascading through into the room was mesmerizing. The rest of the room was decorated to look like a grand ballroom in a castle. There was a stage to the left of the dance floor for the orchestra; each table was decorated with red linen and snow bell flowers as the center piece.

"Yes, you're highness. Of course I only did the piping and the water. Macro did everything else."

"Wow, my mom is going to love it." I loved it. I took the clipboard from Zeke's hand and I scribbled my name across the line. "I am sure that my Dad would approve. Speaking of my Dad…" I felt my phone buzz in my jeans pocket when my reminder alarm went off. "I need to go meet him, see you tonight?" I asked Zeke. I saw him nod a quick yes as I raced out the door and towards Mr. Gold's pawn shop.

I burst through the pawn shop door knowing that I was about 10 minutes late for meeting David. He had wanted to help me pick the perfect gift for my mother. "Sorry I'm late; Zeke wanted me to sign off on his scope of work for that job you had him doing."

David reached his arm out to me indicating that he wanted me to come to his side. When moved closer to him, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "He's done already? How's it look?"

"It is beautiful…I don't know, Dad, after seeing all that; you just might pull this party off."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" he chuckled. Once again he gave me that special wink that he had reserved just for me. "I had Belle pull a few items that I think that would be perfect for your mother."

I turned my attention to the items that were laid out on the show case. She had a myriad of items that she had picked out. Everything from jewelry to books, I looked through everything that she had suggested and talked with my father about each item. There was a locket that David thought would be perfect, especially if I could find a picture of myself when I was little. But considering that I had almost nothing like that, except for what may have been in the file that the snow queen had of my time with her. I passed on that idea.

There was a small jewelry box sitting there. It was a footed jewelry casket in the shape of chest. The silver that it was made from showed it's age in the patina that enveloped the piece. It was a beautiful antique. "That was mine," my father pointed to the old box. "That is the jewelry box that your mother used to hit me in the face…in the altered timeline."

I laughed as I reached up to turn his chin toward me so that I could see the scare, "Maybe that should be a gift from you, then," I suggested with a mischievous raise of my eyebrows.

"How much?" he turned to Belle.

I watched her smile as she slide the box toward my father, "I couldn't possibly make the rightful owner of the box pay for it." He thanked her with is charming smile.

I looked over some of the other items that were laid out, but none of them really jumped out at me. There wasn't anything there that really said happy birthday from a daughter to her mother. I pushed one of the books to the side so that I could get a better look at some of the items under the glass. That was when I found it. It was a beautiful crystal swan paper weight. It had the most intricate design and detail. The whole body was clear crystal but the beak had a yellow-gold tint to it. The culmen, which is the upper ridge of a swan's bill, was painted black, with two black pearls for eyes.

I pointed to the swan through the glass, "the swan," I looked to my dad, "that's the gift."

"It's perfect," he whispered. "A swan from her swan." I closed my eyes at his sentiment; I wanted to shoot him a remark about it being a corny dad joke. But instead, I liked the idea of it.

Belle unlocked the showcase and pulled the swan from its display. I lifted it ever so gently to admire the crafted weight as Belle exited to pull the inventory card. "It will make a lovely gift for your mother," she stated on her way back into the room. "Oh, and mysterious too. It says here that when matched with its emblem it has the power to remember what time has forgotten."

"Where's the emblem?" My father asked the question before I had a chance.

"I don't know," Belle shook her head. "There's no information on the card about the emblem, other than a picture of it." She turned the card for us to see, "it is not something that we have here, in the shop."

"We'll take it," my father said.

I touched my hand to his arm when he reached for his wallet, "what are you doing? This is from me."

"I only said that the gift was from you, I never said that you were going to pay for it. Emma picks, Dad pays. That is how it should have been when you were little and that is what I am making this day about. What should have been and what will be."

I watched him hand the cash over to Belle; I let him have it his way. We left the pawn shop with our gifts in hand and I finally understood what was going on his head. I admired everything that he was doing. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure how I had ever doubted his plan. He had every detail worked out. The evening was going to be nothing less than perfection.


	15. Chapter 15 - The Party

**Welcome to the next chapter. I did introduce Killian into this chapter, but do not expect to see him often. Unfortunately, I do not feel that I do the character justice. Since I am not happy with how I write him, I try to keep him to a minimum, Regina too for the same reason. Plus I want to keep this story focused on the Charming Family as much as I can. But I didn't know how to write this chapter without involving him. Thank you to all of my loyal readers and reviewers. Without you, this story would have died a long time ago. Enjoy! And always, please review...tell me what you think.**

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Chapter 15 – The Party

I had been given my marching orders. I was to have Henry, Neal, and myself dressed and at the town hall by 5:45 pm. Thank god for Henry. Without him, I don't know how I would have gotten myself and Neal ready in the one hour that I had between the time I got home from work and the time that I had to be at the hall. I suddenly had a new found respect for single mothers. Sure, I was a single mother, but my kid was already a teenager and I shared my responsibility with my step-grandmother who also happened to be the same woman who adopted Henry when I gave him up at birth.

Leaving work early, for me, was not an option. David had told Mary Margaret that a last minute council meeting had been called. At least one sheriff was to be there, so he volunteered to be the sheriff to go to the meeting. That meant that he left work a little early leaving me to finish out the rest of the day shift. He insisted that she attend the meeting with him and afterwards they could grab a quiet dinner, just the two of them; which meant that left me and Henry on babysitting duty.

"Henry…" I called to my son as I finished curling my hair in the bathroom. I knew that he was dressed and ready to go, I heard the video game in the living room while he waited for me and kept an eye on Neal.

"Yeah…Crap, I died." Judging by his response, when he turned his focus to me he lost a life on his game. "What's up, Mom?" I guess he had just decided to turn the game off at that point because he poked his head into the bathroom.

"Please tell me that Grandpa left the car seat…" I had been running around the apartment trying to get everything done including packing Neal's diaper bag that I had just remembered about the car seat. My mother hadn't gotten the bag ready because she wasn't expecting us to leave at all.

"Yeah, he said that he put it in your car already."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you. I'm almost done here, can you put Neal's coat on him and take him to the car."

"Yeah, sure." He backed away from the door only to poke his head back in. "By the way, you look really pretty." He ducked back out again before I could respond, but a big proud smile crossed my lips. How in the world did I get so lucky to have such a great kid? Fourteen years ago, I would have punched anyone who said that my life would have turned out like this (a great son, my parents, a little brother, and a pirate boyfriend) in the face. I believed that people like me did have endings like this. It was almost surreal.

"Um...Mom?" I heard Henry call me from the living room. The tone in his voice was very disconcerting. I didn't like it. Nor did I like the next sentence that came from my son's mouth. "Neal had an explosion."

My face fell. "You have got to be kidding me!" It was already 5:30 and granted the town meeting hall was not far from the loft, but still, I did not have time for the poop of the century. From the mirror, I saw Henry carrying Neal, at arm's length, into the bathroom.

I abandoned my curling iron and makeup to make my way to the bathtub to draw Neal a bath. "Holy hell, kid! What did Mom feed you today?" I said more to myself than him, as I peeled off my little brother's clothes. I heard Henry snicker which made me turn my attention to him, "Don't you even say anything about ice cream," I warned my son. He threw his arms up in a shrug; apparently I wasn't going to live down the ice cream incident. "Go find him another outfit," I ordered to Henry, "and make sure it is decent enough for this party."

I had bathed and redressed Mr. Smelly Butt in record time. It was a miracle that I didn't get anything on myself. Naturally he giggled throughout the entire ordeal. I quickly handed Neal off to Henry to take to the car. I yanked the plug of the curling iron from the wall, grabbed Neal's diaper bag, and headed out myself. I had managed to leave myself a whopping five minutes to get from the loft to the town meeting hall.

Killian was waiting for us just outside of the double doors of the hall. He was pacing nervously, "Cutting it a little close, aren't we, love," I shot him an un-amused look.

"Don't even start with me," I said as I handed him the diaper bag. "Here do something with this…" he leaned in to give me a quick kiss, but Neal, who until now had been content while nestled in my arms, had impeccable timing and swung his little arm upward effectively smacking Killian in the eye.

"Ah…" Killian quickly moved his good hand to rub his poked eye. "It seems that the older prince must have been having a little chat with the younger prince."

I couldn't stifle the laugh, "I'm sorry," I reached up to cup his cheek. "I guess the Charming men are a little protective of the Charming women."

He gave me a crooked smirk then put his arm around my shoulders to guide me into the room. Henry reached to open the door for my entrance, since my hands were full with my little brother. I looked around the room; it was even more breathtaking, now that it was filled with guests, than it was this afternoon. "A red carpet?" My eyes widened. I was taken back a bit when I noticed it run all the way to the front of the room.

"Yes," Killian offered me his arm, he begun to speak, "And I have been instructed to make sure that the two young princes and you are at the end of it."

"Ah, ok…" I shifted Neal to my right arm then linked my left arm with Killian's right. "My father has pulled you into his plan?"

"Not exactly, Love, he only asked me to make certain that you were in your proper place when he arrived with your mother."

As I walked down the aisle that was created by the red carpet, escorted by the three out of the four best looking men in Storybrooke, I looked around to all of the guests. The room was filled with people who had nothing but love and admiration for my parents and my family. It was all a bit overwhelming for me. Being part of a family was something that took me three years to fully accept. But now in this room, I realized that I was part of a community as well.

As we stood at the end of the Red Carpet, I looked to the walls; the water fall was just as beautiful. The light that filtered through the water bounced off of the dresses and suits of the guests, making the room glow. The one thing that stood out to me was that there was no gift table. I knew that my father had told me not to bring my gift, he want our gift giving to be in private after the party. But there wasn't a cake to be found. There weren't any happy birthday banners hanging. There were only waiters and caterers flitting about the room.

"That sneaky son of a…" I started to whisper to myself, but when I caught Henry turning to look at me I quickly changed my wording, "…father of mine." He hadn't set this up to be a birthday party; he set this up to be a royal ball that just happened to be on my mother's birthday.

My attention was soon drawn to the double doors when two of the dwarfs opened each door at the same time. David and Mary Margaret appeared in the entryway just as Archie began to announce their presence to all of the guests. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to announce Princess Snow White and Prince Charming."

The sight standing before me at the other end of room was awe-inspiring. My mother looked so beautiful standing next to my father, with her arm linked in his. It was almost hard to believe that those two people standing there were my parents. They had given life to me and my little brother whom I held in my arms so that he could see them enter as well. He began to wave his arms excitedly at the sight of our parents entering the room.

My mother moved her hand to cover her mouth when the sight of all of their friends hit her eyes; but it was when she locked her focus on me holding my brother at the end of the red carpet that tears started to flow. She practically pulled my father down the red carpeted aisle to reach us. First she pulled Henry into a tight hug with a quick kiss to his cheek. Next she took Neal from my arms; she put a loving kiss on each of his cheeks then held him close to her chest for just a minute before handing him off to my father. Finally, she cupped my cheeks with her hands pulling my head forward toward her lips to give me one of her tender motherly kisses on my forehead. She let go of my cheeks to pull me into a just as tight of a hug as she gave Henry. "I love you, baby," she whispered in my ear before pulling away. Ok, well, this was not the reaction that I was expecting from my mother. As a matter of fact, I expected to see her fuming with smoke bellowing from her ears at a rapid rate.

Her smile was infectious and full of love; love for my father for putting together such a special event and for just being him; love for her children for just being who we are; love for Henry for being her special grandson who ultimately brought us all together; love for Regina who was now not only her step-mother but her friend; and love for their friends who have always stuck by her and my father. As the waiter passed us, she pulled off a flute of champagne for all of us, including Henry, "just let him have this one" she said to me when I gave her a questioning look.

My father began to speak as he held his flute high in the air, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and family. I would like to thank all of you for coming this evening and making this ball a truly special event for my family. As I laid awake in bed one evening, trying to come up with my next bad idea…" he turned to me a gave me his patented 'wink to his daughter', "I thought about all of the time that we have spent here in Storybrooke, before and after the curse was broken. And I thought that we have never really had a ball reminiscent to those that we frequently had in the Enchanted Forest. My thoughts quickly turned to how I could throw a ball here in Storybrooke. Those thoughts led to think of my beautiful wife and how she so enjoyed these occasions in the Enchanted forest. As I planned the details of this evening, I took into consideration what my wife loved so much about these events. And that was spending time with friends and family. So I turned to my wife, Snow, and say this evening is for you! To share such a special occasion with our beloved children, Emma and Neal, our ever so loveable grandson, Henry, and all of our friends. I love you, Snow" he lifted her hand to place a kiss on the back of it. "And I love our beautiful children and grandson." He nodded his head to the orchestra in the corner. As they started to play he passed Neal to me and in one fluid motion procured my mother's hand, "May I have this dance?"

The crowd gave way to my parents. I watched as they looked lovingly into each other's eyes as they waltzed across the floor. I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever be in love like they were. I smiled to myself. Killian and I were just beginning a serious relationship, so it was possible.

The evening continued with fine food and dance. I watched as people enjoyed the company of others. I made sure that I danced with Killian and Henry, but the highlight of my waltzing was the dance that I had with my father.

"May I have this dance with my beautiful daughter?" I looked up to see my father holding out his hand. It was my second dance of the evening. My first was with my son. I placed my hand in his and he pulled me from my chair and led me to the dance floor.

"You know, I am not that good of a dancer," I started.

"Nonsense, but if you want, you can stand on my feet." He spun me around making me feel like a little girl again. "Thank you."

"For what?" I asked.

"For being you, for being my daughter, and for keeping me grounded with all of this. Had you not threatened to throw me under the bus, I may have gone overboard."

"Have you even made one mention of her birthday to her today?" I asked, although I was fairly certain that I knew the answer.

"Not a one…" he laughed. "But I have saved that for tonight when we get home."

"Ah, yes, the gifts." I almost forgot about those, "Well, I will be honest, I really thought that this was going to be disastrous. But I'm glad that it wasn't. She seems really happy."

"Well, you are part of that happiness, you know."

"Yeah, I know." We danced until the song ended and he kissed my forehead. The rest of the evening was spent dancing and eating. I shared more dances with Henry and Killian. I even spun my brother around on the dance floor a couple of times. I made sure that I made my way around greeting all of the guests and thanking them for coming. Although it wasn't my party, I felt the obligation to speak with each of the guests. Maybe I was starting to fit into this royal life, after all. Many of the friends that I spoke particularly complimented the water fall walls. The décor was not my idea, but it was spectacular. When I saw Zeke standing in the corner speaking to one of the dwarfs, I made my way to him to pass along the compliments.

"Hello, Gentlemen," I greeted but quickly turned my attention to Zeke with a smile. "Your professional work has been greatly admired this evening."

"Thank you, Princess," He smiled a grateful smile before he continued. "From what I understand, it takes a lot to make an impression on the Super Swan."

My smile quickly faded. I moved my glance from him to Doc, the dwarf that had been speaking with, then back to him. I slowly backed away from, finally remembering why he had seemed so familiar to me. There was only one person who ever called me Super Swan, but he never hid his nickname for me from his father. Of all the people that he could have been, it had to be him. His appearance hand changed so much in the last 15 years. It was no wonder that I didn't recognize him.

I looked over to my parents who were having the time of their lives dancing and having fun. I scanned the room for Henry, he was playing with Neal. Killian was involved a conversation with Regina, about what? I could only guess. I couldn't ruin this evening for them. It was too important to my parents.

I stiffened my back, as I turned back to Mr. Cooper, aka Zeke, "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he shrugged off my concern as he walked away, "Yet." He threw over his shoulder.


	16. Chapter 16 - The Swan

**Most of this chapter wrote itself. It probably should have been tacked onto the last chapter, but I wanted to end the last chapter on a cliffhanger. This chapter is really just making a bridge to next important plot point. Happy Reading!**

**Oh and a big shout out to all of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. The response was overwhelming. It almost make me feel like I'm not living up to expectations on this chapter. Anyway...you are all AWESOME! Thank you so much. As always, please review, let me know what you think.**

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Chapter 16

At that moment, I was in a full panic mode. I had assumed that Zeke, Mr. Cooper, whatever the hell his name was, had left the party. He had exited out of the double doors. I fumbled for my phone. I had to talk to someone about this and, as I saw it, JC was my only option. David had worked too hard to make this the perfect evening for Mary Margaret, I wasn't going to ruin it. I realized that I had left my phone in Neal's diaper bag. I frantically looked around trying to find where Killian had put it.

"Ha…there it is." I spotted the diaper bag under the head table that was next to the dance floor. I hurried to the front of the room and crouched down to search the pockets. I quickly glanced over to my parents to see if they had noticed me. They hadn't. They were still dancing and were crowded by other couples that were blocking their view of me.

"Mom?" I heard the voice behind me. Shit. Henry. I looked up to him, "Is everything ok?" he asked.

"Uh…Yeah kid." I searched for an explanation of my sudden behavior while I jetted my hands in and out of the various pockets on the bag. My hand finally found what I was looking for; I pulled out my phone showing it to my son. "I just need to make a quick phone call. Is…ah…everything ok with you? Where's Neal" I panicked again when I realized that Henry was playing with him a minute ago while my parents were still dancing but now Henry was not with him.

"He's with my Mom…" I followed his finger with my eyes to see that he had pointed in the direction of Regina. "She wanted to hold him for a little bit. Are you sure that you're ok?" He asked again, skepticism plagued his voice. Clearly I was not doing a good job of hiding my anxiety.

"Yeah, yeah…I'm fine. I just forgot about something and I need to take care of it. You know me; I'll worry about something until I know that it is handled." I smiled at him before I turned to leave the room to call JC.

"Ok…" I heard him say behind me. I turned back to him to make sure that he was not following me. He wasn't. He went back to Regina and Neal.

Once I was in the hallway, I tried to quickly pull up JC's number. My hands were shaking so bad that I could barely work my phone. I was finally able to bring up the contact and hit the send button to make the call. I heard the ring on the other end. "Come on, JC…pick up…damn it." The call went to voice mail. I hung up and tried again. Again, the call went to voice mail, this time I left a message for him to call me immediately.

I paced in the hallway for a couple minutes hoping that I had just caught him in a moment where he couldn't answer and that he would listen to message and call me right back. After five minutes of waiting with no return call, I thought about Lily. I quickly brought up her number and hit send.

"Lily," I shouted when I heard her answer. "It's Emma. Is JC with you, I really need to talk to him now."

"Sorry, Emma…" I heard her say, "I've been on a stakeout for the past 24. I haven't seen or talked to him."

"Shit," that was my only reply.

"Do you want me to try to call him?" she asked.

"No, no…don't worry about it. I'll try him again. Thanks." I hung up on her before she had a chance to reply or even say goodbye. I went to call JC again, but my attention was diverted when I heard the doors to meeting hall open. I let go of breath when I saw that it was just some guests leaving for the evening. I looked at the clock on my phone. It was almost 10:00 pm. Great. I dialed JC one more time and again it went to voicemail.

I decided that I just couldn't stay at the party any longer. I had the feeling of being too exposed. I needed to be somewhere private. I couldn't talk to my parents, I needed to get out. They would notice my change in behavior and that would lead to questions. Questions that I did not want to answer, not tonight. It would ruin what my Dad worked so hard to make perfect. No, leaving was my best bet. I opened the doors to enter the room. I scanned it quickly to see that David and Mary Margaret were engaged in conversation with Regina. I closed my eyes and held my breath as I approached them.

"Hey," I said to gain their attention. My mother smiled at me. In an effort to hide my uneasiness, I cut to the chase. "I'm not feeling too well; I think that I am going to head home." I looked to Regina, "will you take Henry?" Regina nodded but my mother's smile turned to concern.

"Is everything ok, honey?" she asked. I looked down at my hands. I started to pick at my fingers, but forced myself to stop because I knew that was one of my giveaways at being nervous about something. Hopefully they didn't notice.

"Yeah, I think that I just ate a little too much, my stomach is hurting." It wasn't a complete lie. My stomach was hurting, but it had nothing to do with the amount of food that I ate.

"Just give us a minute, we'll leave with you." My father offered. "I don't want you driving if you're not feeling well."

"No," My response was too quick, so I paused before I continued. "No, that's ok. It's only a couple of blocks, I'll be fine. I just want to go home and lie down for a bit."

"Are you sure? You're not looking too good." David questioned. The concern was building in both of their eyes. I had to do something to throw them off. I looked over to Neal who was still in Regina's arms.

"Yeah, I'm sure, why don't I take Neal home and put him to bed. I'll lie down on your bed so that I'm right there if he needs me. It's really just an upset stomach, I'm ok to drive and I didn't have anything to drink except for a sip of champagne during your toast."

My mother raised her hand to feel my forehead. I was tempted to push it away, but I didn't. She looked to my father to have one of their silent conversations before nodding to me. "Ok, honey. Be careful, though. Text me when you get home, ok?"

"I will," I assured her. I reached for Neal from Regina. Henry handed me his coat and diaper bag then gave me a side hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, kid." Henry pulled away.

My dad stepped forward giving Neal a gentle kiss on his head, then looked to me. "Be careful," he said as he leaned in to give me a kiss as well. I nodded. He backed away and I reached my free arm around my mother for a hug. "Happy Birthday, Mom." I whispered to her. I felt her tense up, but then relax.

"Thank you, sweetheart," was all that she said. I wasn't sure if her response was good or bad. But at this time, it didn't really matter. I just needed to get home, where I knew that I was safe, and I could think about what my next move would be.

Living only blocks away from the town meeting hall made the drive home very quick. I rushed to get upstairs and lock the door. Once I was in the confines of the loft, I was finally able to relax a bit. Although, Mr. Cooper had me pretty worked up. I set Neal into his walker for a minute so that I could pull out my phone to check for a call or a text from JC, but there was nothing. I did, however, shoot a small text to my mother to let her know that Neal and I were home, just as I had promised.

I sat on the floor next to Neal for just a minute, to take a breather. I engaged in a small game of 'pick up my toys' with him, just as a way to take my mind off of what had happened at the party and Mr. Cooper. I kept asking myself the same questions, why was he here? What did he want from me? He had said nothing, but followed that up with an obtuse 'yet.' Why wasn't JC calling me back? Did JC know that he was here in Storybrooke?

When I noticed that Neal's little eyes were getting heavy, I moved to my parent's bedroom to change him and put him to bed. At first I laid him in his crib. It was close to my parent's bed, but it just wasn't close enough to suit me. As I watched him lay there and fall asleep, my mind kept drifting to Mr. Cooper and all of the 'what if's' that came along with worry. At that point, I gave up. I couldn't shake the need to have him close to me. I felt like I had to protect him at all cost. The fear was causing me to think irrationally. Or was it rational, did I really have a reason to be afraid for myself and my brother? I didn't know anymore.

I lined my mother's side of the bed with pillows so that Neal wouldn't roll off. I laid him next to the pillows and blocked my father's side of the bed with my own body. I wrapped my arms around him in a way that I wasn't hurting him or making him uncomfortable but also in a way that if he was moved, I would feel it. It wasn't long before we were both asleep. I can't say that I was in a deep sleep, but the emotional exhaustion was forcing my eyes closed. I kept trying to keep them open because every time they closed them I saw Mr. Cooper coming after me. It was hard for me to differentiate between it being a dream or being real.

I heard voices that sounded like they were in the distance. I couldn't make out what they were saying. However, I thought that I heard my name. I couldn't see anyone, I only heard the voices. Suddenly there was movement. Something was being pulled from my arms. The voices were closer, but still muffled. Suddenly, I sprung to life screaming, "GET AWAY FROM HIM." I started swinging my arms. "DON'T HURT HIM!"

I felt someone grab my shoulders and say my name, "GET OFF ME!" I screamed and forcefully brought my fists down on the forearms of whoever was holding me.

"Owe!" I heard the voice complain. "Emma, wake up!" I heard as the arms were now wrapped around my body. "Emma, wake up!"

I felt something cold and wet hit my face. Shaking it off forced me to open my eyes. I couldn't move, I found that my father was holding me so tight and my mother was standing next to him with a wet washcloth in her hand. They had placed Neal in his crib, he was still sound asleep. When I finally realized that everything was ok, I latched onto my father for a couple of minutes and just let him hold me until I calmed down.

Once my breathing evened out I heard him ask, "Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

I shook my head, but didn't lift it, "just a dream." I mumble into his shoulder. "I'm sorry," I finally pulled back. "I felt Neal being taken from my arms, and with my dream, I guess my mind just kicked into overdrive."

My mother sat down on the bed next to me and took my hand into hers, "are you ok now?"

"Yeah…" I gave a little smile. "I'm ok." For a minute, I thought about telling them about Mr. Cooper, but I decided that in that moment I should leave it alone. Instead, I switched to a happier topic. Or at least, I hoped it would be a happier topic. "So, how did you like your party?" I asked my mother. I did my best to hide my face so that they didn't pick up on my demeanor that had been caused by my Mr. Cooper encounter.

"Oh, the party…" She raised an eyebrow at my father, "you mean the not a birthday, birthday party?" I smiled at her and nodded.

"It was all him," I pointed to my Dad. "I told him that you didn't want to celebrate your birthday…"

"And you were right…" she cut me off. "I will be honest. When I first realized what was going on, I was livid. My mind was reeling. How could he plan something for my birthday when I had expressed so vividly that I did not want to celebrate my birthday, I was fuming!"

"But?" I was confused.

"But what?" Oh, she was going to make me say it.

"Well…you didn't look like you were fuming when you arrived." It was true; I certainly didn't take her reaction for being upset.

"Well, there's a good reason for that." She pointed to Neal and then to me. "When I saw the two of you and Henry at the end of that carpet; in that moment I realized that my life was in front of me, not behind me. That every day that I have you three and your father in my life is a day to celebrate."

"That's good to hear," I said as I jumped up to retrieve the package that I had for her. It didn't take me long to return with it. "Henry wrapped it, but it is from me." I handed her the gift. She took off the paper ever so gingerly. She pulled the crystal swan from the box. I saw the tears begin to well up in her eyes, "oh what a beautiful swan." She looked over to me, "but not as beautiful as my other swan."

She pulled me into a warm hug, "Happy Birthday, Mom."

"Thank you, baby, I love it. Who's idea was the waterfall, around the walls?" she asked as she pulled back. "Zeke did a beautiful job at creating it. It was perfect."

I tensed up and pushed myself away from them at the sound of his name. They both looked at me with confusion at my movements. But they didn't say anything. Instead, David began to tell her the story of how the waterfall project came to be. Each time he said the name it was felt like knife being plunged into my chest.

"I'm going to bed, good night guys." I had to interrupt him; I didn't want to hear anymore of it. I tried to make my voice sound like I was just tired and hide the worry and trepidation. I had wanted to tell them about Zeke being Mr. Cooper, but my father had turned her birthday into a day that was happy, I wasn't about to taint it now. No, we were safe at home and I hadn't talked to JC yet. It could wait until tomorrow.


	17. Chapter 17 - Scum

**Here you go folks, I don't have much to say about this chapter, except, Enjoy! Thank you everyone for the fantastic reviews. I truly appreciate you guys letting me know what you think. I rushed to put this up tonight, so I'll will reread and fix any major errors that I see at a later time. As always, keep the review coming.**

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Chapter 17

I awoke the next morning to find a text on my phone from JC. It turned out that he was sent to Los Angeles for runaway case and he was in a meeting when I called. Instead of texting him back I called him. I didn't care if it was 4 in the morning in LA, I needed to talk to him. But why didn't Lily tell me that he was out of town? I answered my own question a second later; maybe if I would have given her time to respond and not hung up on her, she would have told me.

"Emma?" He sounded so tired when he answered the phone.

"JC…" I couldn't stop my voice from cracking.

"Emma, what's wrong?" He suddenly sounded wide awake.

I tried to swallow the lump that was forming in my throat. "He's here."

"What are you talking about? Who's there?" Was he seriously asking me that question?

"Mr. Cooper is here…in Storybrooke." I was trying not to be too loud. I had heard movement downstairs so at least one of my parents was awake. But I needed to talk to JC first. I needed to know what he knew, if anything.

"What…how…did he get to Storybrooke?" In that moment, I wished that we were having this conversation face to face rather than over the phone. It was hard to read him just by the sound of his voice.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? The last I knew is what you told me; that he was just out of jail. And not looking for me, I might add!" I think that sounded exactly the way I meant it, accusingly.

"Emma, if you're asking me if I knew that he was in Storybrooke; the answer is no. Why would I? And I had no idea that he was looking for you. I haven't talked to him. I haven't even seen him. I have no desire to even go near him!" He was getting defensive; which made me think that he knew more than he was letting on.

"If you haven't seen or talked to him then how the hell did you know that he was out of jail?" I was quickly losing my patience.

"I…I had Lily keeping up on it. I knew that it wouldn't be long before he was out on parole, so I asked her to keep an eye on his status. I didn't want to be caught off guard if and when he showed up on my doorstep. Which is the same reason that I told you that he was out; you needed to be prepared."

"Prepared for what?" I nearly yelled. I caught myself. I peeked my head out of my door to see if my voice carried and caught the attention of whoever was downstairs. I saw that it was my mother, and she was pouring herself a bowl of cereal, if she heard me it didn't seem to faze her any. I ducked back into my bedroom and closed the door. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing, Emma. I just don't trust him, and you shouldn't either. I just wanted you know that he was out and you should be on your guard, that's all," he tried to convince me.

I wasn't buying it, "you're lying to me."

I called his bluff, but he held strong, "I'm not lying…I'll tell you what. As soon as get back to Augusta, I'll come to Storybrooke and we can face this…him…head on. Ok?"

I remained silent. "Emma?"

"Ok, fine. Straight here." I agreed.

"Ok it shouldn't take me more than a couple of days, in the meantime, just stay away from him," He added.

"Ha…easier said than done," he was about to hang up until he heard my snarky remark.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"It means that in the two weeks that I was out of town trying to figure out what Gold was up to, he became my dad's favorite repair man. I came home to find his legs sticking out from under our kitchen sink, repairing the drain." I explained.

"Well, just stay away from him. I gotta go, I'll see you when I get back." He didn't wait for me to say goodbye. I looked at my phone, when the line went dead, like it was the phones fault that we were disconnected. That was the strangest conversation yet that I had with JC. He was definitely lying to me about something. At first, I was second guessing my instincts, but it was his blatant disregard to my confession of Mr. Cooper becoming best buds with my Dad that confirmed my suspicions.

I quickly got dressed and headed downstairs to the door. If my mother was just having cereal for breakfast then that meant that David had already left, but I asked the question anyway as I zipped up my boots and reached for my jacket, "Did Dad leave already?"

"Yeah," she swallowed her bite of cereal, "Yeah, he was stopping at Granny's first; if you hurry you can still catch him."

"Ok, bye." I was out the door. My hurry wasn't to catch up with my father, but rather to talk to Marco. According to my parents Zeke, also known as Mr. Cooper, had been working for Marco. So that seemed like the best place to start.

I stopped at Granny's first; I ordered a hot chocolate for me and a coffee for Marco. I looked around for David but I didn't see him, I wasn't quite sure how I beat him to the restaurant if he left the loft before me.

"Hey, there's my girl." I felt David put his hand on my shoulder. He sat at the counter next to me. "Sorry, I didn't wait for you this morning…"

"That's ok, I have some follow ups that I need to make this morning, so I won't be in the office right away." I heard the bell on the door ring, suddenly he was standing behind David and me.

"Zeke," David held out his hand to the older man, "thank you for everything, it looked spectacular last night. Everyone loved it, right Emma?" I didn't respond. My body was tensed by the man's closeness to me. I saw the look that David gave me, the 'why are you being rude look', but I didn't care.

"Thank you, you highness, I am glad that it met your approval." Mr. Cooper turned toward me, "Good morning, Princess." Again, I didn't respond to him, I glared at him from the corner of my eye.

"Emma?" Now the 'why are you being rude' tone was in David's voice. I had to get out of there before he started asking me questions.

Thankfully, Ruby set the cups that I ordered in front of me. I don't know if it was just perfect time or she saw the storm that was brewing. I set the money on the counter and turned to David. "I have to go, I'll see you later." My tone was cold, but again, I didn't care. I heard David apologize to Zeke for my behavior as I pushed through the door and Ol' Zeke just brushed it off. But I knew that it would be a topic brought up for discussion later by my father.

Marco's wood shop was a short walk from Granny's and it was a beautiful morning. Marco was just unlocking the door as I came up the sidewalk. "Hey, Marco, how are you this morning?"

"Oh, good morning, Emma; I am well, thank you. What brings you by?" It was unusual for me to be stopping buy his shop, especially now that August was a little Pinocchio again.

I held out the cup of coffee that I had brought for him, "I didn't know what you like in it, so it's just black." I said.

"Black is fine, thank you." He graciously accepted the cup and took a sip.

"I was hoping that I could ask you a couple of questions about Zeke." I got right to the point, no sense in side stepping the reason for my visit.

"Of Course, come in, come in."

I followed him inside the shop. I looked around, I thought that it was cute the way that all of his tools neatly hung on the walls and there were piles of wood planks strewn about everywhere. "What can I answer for you?"

"I promise, I won't take up much of your time, I was just hoping that you could tell me what you knew about him?"

"I do not know much. I put an ad in the paper for extra help. He responded and had experience so I hire him," Marco explained to me.

"How long ago was that?" I asked.

"Oh, I say about a month ago. Maybe a little longer," I watched the older gentleman as he moved about his shop and pulled out some brushes and varnish.

"Did he come over in the curse?" I asked as he pulled a wooden rocking horse from under a table. Of course, I knew the answer to that question; he didn't come in Regina's curse or my parents. He was already here and outside of Storybrooke. But I wanted to know what he was telling the residents.

"He said that he came in the second curse. I do not remember him from the Enchanted Forest, but so many people came from different areas, I don't know them all."

"The second curse, huh?" I ran my hand over the smooth wood of the horse.

Marco nodded and lifted his hands in the direction of the horse, "I make this for Roland. I thought he might enjoy. I am hoping that he will come back one day soon, that I may give it to him."

I smiled at old man, "I think he will. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it."

"You are welcome, Emma. Let me know if you need anything, I am happy to help."

I'll smiled to him again as I exited the shop and made my way to the station. I found it interesting that Zeke was telling people that he came in the second curse. That meant that he was getting information on the town from somewhere. Why would an outsider know anything about the curse, let alone it being cast twice. The next question was; how did he get here? I had figured out with JC that in order to get into Storybrooke, you needed to possess something that belonged in Storybrooke. And since we hadn't seen Gold back in town, I thought that it was safe to say that he hadn't learned that tidbit of information. That meant the Zeke had to have an accomplice who was currently in Storybrooke. But who?

"Hey," I greeted David when I entered the station room.

"Emma," he leaned back in his chair and threw his pen in the desk. I knew that look in his eyes; it was his 'care to explain' look. And well, I didn't, but he apparently had other ideas. "You want to tell me what your attitude was about at the diner this morning?"

Yeah, I was going to make this hard. "No, not really," I answered.

"Wrong answer," his voice was stern.

"I just don't like him." I tried to end the interrogation there and go into my office but he grabbed my wrist on my way past stopping my escape. He pulled my arm in the direction of his desk and pointed at the chair that sat next to it. "Sit!"

I let out a huff, but obeyed him anyway. "What is going on with you? You've been acting different since you left the party last night."

"I told you, I just haven't been feeling well." I slid down in the chair a little. I flung my head back to look up at the ceiling to avoid looking at him.

"There is something else going on, even not feeling well you wouldn't have acted ill-mannered to anyone like you did at Granny's this morning."

"Don't be so sure," I mumbled under my breath.

"What?"

"Nothing," I lifted my head. I still didn't look at him, but instead I cast my eyes down on his desk. "What is this?" I asked picking up what looked like an invoice.

"Oh, that is bill for the waterfall," he answered. I looked down at the price. I grunted and tossed the paper down.

"He's charging you too much." I said, of course in my mind any amount owed to Zeke was too much.

"You think so?" David asked as he picked up the invoice to look over it again.

"Yeah," I said with a laugh as I walked away, "I think he owes you way more than you owe him." I knew David didn't understand my innuendo; there was no way that he could. It didn't matter; he would get it in time.

I spent the rest of my morning searching the internet and law enforcement databases for any information that I could find on Zeke. Unfortunately I kept coming up empty. The few things that I did find were his birth date and birth place. I found addresses for the past seventeen years, which of course included the house that I had lived in briefly and jail. I couldn't find anything that made any connection between him and any Storybrooke resident. I had to be missing something.

David had spent his morning catching up on his paperwork. There was one call that came in, a domestic; he said that he would take care of it. While he was gone I went to his desk to look at the invoice again. I had noticed that he wrote out a check and paper clipped it the bill. I was tempted to remove the check and slip it in my pocket, but I didn't need to draw any more attention to my obvious disdain.

"Is that for me?" I jumped when I heard Zeke's voice behind me. I didn't know that he was coming to the station to pick up the check.

"No," I turned around to face him, with steel in my spine. "It's too much money; I think you need to drop the price to about…nothing."

He looked around; he obviously realized that my father was not present, that it was just me and him. "Listen, I don't have any beef with you girlie." Ugh, I hated it when he called me that. "I did an honest days work for an honest days pay. That is what I expect."

"Well then, I guess our expectations are a little different then. Since my expectation is that you are going to call it even," I was determined to stand strong against him.

"I've done my time, justice has been served. I'm just trying to make a clean living." He argued.

"You may have served your time, but what about me? What about the time that I served in the hospital? I think that deserves a little compensation. Besides what are you going to do, beat it out of me…again?" I didn't see David standing there when the words left my mouth.

"What did you say?" I spun, eyes wide, when I heard my father's voice, his words were soaked in venom. He shot across the room and had Zeke pinned to wall with one hand and squeezing his neck with the other. "Who is he, Emma?" I didn't say anything. Tears were beginning to stream down my cheeks.

"Who… IS HE, EMMA?" That time; my father screamed it as he squeezed Zeke's neck a little harder. I could hear Zeke grasping for air. I had to come clean.

"Mr. Cooper," I yelled back through the tears. "He is Mr. Cooper, JC's father." I slowly walked up behind my father and put my shaking hand on his shoulder. "Dad, let him go."

"No…" he yelled back and pushed the man harder against the wall. "You have one chance to give a good reason as why I shouldn't kill you, right here, right now."

Zeke tried to squeak out words, but couldn't over David's grip. "DAD, please let him go."

"Open the cell," David yelled to me.

"He already spent time in jail, you can't lock him up again for the same crime." I tried to reason but I opened the cell door anyway.

David looked at me then back at Zeke. He loosened his grip just enough to allow him to talk unobstructed. "I can lock him up for his own safety! One chance, that's all you have." David yelled in his face.

I saw Zeke's eyes turn dark, he let out a cough before he spoke. "You won't kill me because you need to know what I know."

David pulled him from the wall and pushed him into the cell. He closed the door making sure that it was locked. "And tomorrow, you're going to tell me EVERYTHING that you know. And so help me, if you come near my daughter again, you will not live long enough to regret it."

My father turned to me and pulled me into a tight hug. He held me for what seemed like forever before he finally whispered in my ear, "Let's go home. I'll deal with this scum tomorrow."


	18. Chapter 18 - Interrogation

**Sorry for the wait, this was a another chapter that I rewrote three times. I think that I finally settled on something that I am happy with. Thank you to all of my loyal readers for their support and reviews. Let's see if we can push the reviews past 100! You guys are the best. Hope that you enjoy this chapter. Please review, tell me what you think!  
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Chapter 18 - Interrogation

When we left the sheriff station, I didn't expect to run into my mother right outside of the building. It was a beautiful day and she was walking down the street pushing my baby brother in his stroller. I quickly wiped my eyes hoping that she wouldn't notice my emotional state. But really, who was I kidding; I had just talked my father down from killing the man who nearly killed me when I was a teenager.

"Hey, guys," I heard her call. Oh, she was awfully chipper. I crossed behind my father toward the police car. I leaned my back against the car and turned my head to look down the street. My father tried to greet my mother with a short kiss, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that while she leaned into him, she was looking at me with concern written on her face. "What's going on?" She pulled her stare from me to look at my father.

"Nothing, we were just leaving to come home for a bit…" I knew that he was trying to push off the explanation without getting into what actually happened until we were able to be somewhere a little more private. The middle of the street was not the location for this conversation. I saw her step around him and approach me. I tried to look at anything but her.

"Emma? What's wrong?" I cast my gaze down to the ground, trying to avoid her questions. She put her hand under my chin moving my head to force me to look at her. "You were crying, you don't usually cry…" she said as matter of fact "…why were you crying?"

I still didn't answer her questions. I could tell that she was getting frustrated with my stubborn silence; she raised her voice but directed her next question to David. "Charming, why has my daughter been crying?"

He glanced up and down the street, trying to take notice of anyone who had been nearby, possibly watching the family interaction. "Maybe we should take this inside." He reached for my arm to pull me away from the car. He held the door to the sheriff station opened to allow my mother, with the stroller, and I to enter. I walked straight to my office knowing that they would follow me. My mother was not going to let this rest until she knew what was bothering me. I saw her do a double take toward the cell seeing that Zeke was securely locked inside.

I sat in my desk chair, not offering the seat to either of my parents. I leaned forward with my elbows on the desk and propped my faced in my hands. My mother waited until David closed the office door behind him before she said anything about our guest, "Why is Zeke locked in the cell?"

My father motioned for me to get up out of the chair, "Mary Margaret, maybe you should sit.."

"No, I don't think that I will," she eyed the both of us suspiciously. I didn't move. I just turned my head to have a better view of them. "Tell me…what is going on? Why was Emma crying and why is Zeke locked in the cell?" She suddenly got this look on her face liked she had finally figured out the mystery. She turned to David, I guess because she thought he would be the one to give her the answer. "What did he do to her?"

"Mom…" I finally spoke up, but she put her hand up to stop me. Clearly she wanted to hear it from David and not me. I looked through the window to our guest and saw that he was not lying on the cot but instead he had moved to the cell bars leaning on them. I'm certain that it was his attempt to eavesdrop on our conversation.

"Mary Margaret…" David let out a sigh. He was struggling to find the words to tell her who this man really was, "do you remember when Emma said that Zeke seemed familiar to her but she couldn't place how?"

"Yeah…" She drug out the word, urging him to continue. He let out another heavy sigh, "David, just tell me already."

He stepped forward, taking her hands into his. He was trying to make the blow as soft as possible, "She remembered," he looked down at me quickly then back to her. "Zeke, is JC's father…Mr. Cooper."

"He's what?!" She yelled. She yanked her hands free from his. She turned to me and I nodded in confirmation. Her hand flew to cover her mouth. The look of shock that was plastered on her face turned to raging anger. Before I knew it, she flung open the office door and was headed straight for cell. She reached through the bars and wrapped his shirt into her fist. Her motions were so rapid that none of us, including Zeke, had time to react. She pulled him toward the bars with such force that his head smashed against the hard metal leaving a gash on his forehead. I just stood there watching her. I don't know why I was in such shock; this was the same woman who tackled Mulan and shot an arrow into the eye of an ogre to keep me safe.

Zeke started to protest, "I've been locked up for a crime that I already served time for and now police brutality!"

"Oh you haven't seen brutal, yet." My mother's words were like a sharp knife.

"Mary Margaret, let him go." David had his hands on her shoulders and was pulling her away from him. As David pulled her, she pulled Zeke until he was stopped by the bars and she was forced to release his shirt.

"You are so lucky that you are behind those bars," she snapped back to him.

I approached with the first aid kit and the keys to the cell. "See, his own safety," David raised an eyebrow to me as he tried to justify why he had locked the man up. David turned his focus to Mary Margaret and he moved her away from the cell. Neither of them noticed that I was fiddling with my keys to unlock the cell.

I had to take care of the gash that was now on Zeke's head. "Lay down on the cot, Zeke." My words were tough and hard, but I needed him to know that I was no longer a scared sixteen year old.

"Emma, what are you doing?" My father asked after he had finally gotten my mother to sit down on the couch. The reality of who this man was sinking in for her. He had one arm wrapped around her shoulders and the other hand was holding her hand.

"I need to fix up the cut on his head."

"No," my mother jumped up again, "Don't you dare go in there with him." My father pulled her back down to the couch.

"He's isn't going to do anything! Are you!" The look that I gave him just dared him to make a move. He lifted his arms in defeat then laid down on the cot as I had instructed. However, I wasn't willing to tempt fate either, so I cuffed him cot as a precaution. I listened to my parents talking as I cleaned the cut and pulled it together with the butterfly stitches that were in the first aid kit.

"Why is he only locked in a cell, why isn't he dead?" I let out a small grunt to my mother's question.

My back was turned to my parents so I could only imagine the icy glare that my mother was shooting in Zeke's direction. But I couldn't resist egging him on, just a little. "If you're lucky, you might get out of this alive, Mr. Cooper." He just smirked at me.

"Oh, believe me, I was well on my way to ending his life," my father answered my mother. "But he seems to think that he has some information that we need."

"Well, why haven't you beaten it out of him yet?" I laughed at my mother's questions. "The same way that he beat our daughter." She yelled to him. Hearing those words from my mother made me wince. But I recovered quickly.

"Karma's a bitch, isn't it?" I whispered to our guest. "How long do you think that I can run interference between you and them?"

"Oh, so you're going to cover your ass by making them play by the rules?" his sarcasm was laughable.

I gave him an arrogant smirk, "Oh, I didn't say that. No…You see, because you say that you have information that we need to know, I'm going to tell you two things that you need to know. Let's call it…incentive…its incentive for you to tell us the truth about what it is that you think you know and for you to tell us in a timely manner." He didn't respond. He just waited for me to continue. "Ready…" he nodded "…my parents have felt very guilty about the life that I was forced to have before I found them and now that they have me back in their lives they are fiercely protective of me. By the way, you can thank me now. Since, had I not stopped him earlier, you'd be dead already. You understand what I'm saying to you? And, don't be foolish enough to think that you can use their guilt against them. Because, see, we've moved past all of that. And I won't stop him a second time." I gave him a wink and removed the cuff from his wrist.

I exited the cell and found that, during my little speech to Zeke, my parents had moved from the couch to the cell area. Once I was completely out of the cell, my mother grabbed my wrist and pulled me to her side. She slipped her right hand into my right hand as she protectively stepped in front of my body.

"So, here's the deal, Zeke…" My father got his attention and he moved closer to the bars to listen to David proposal. "You owe it to us and our daughter to truthfully answer all of our questions. In return we will release you; since legally we can't hold you; and you will cross the town line, leaving with us any trinket that you may have that would allow you to reenter Storybrooke. And once your gone…you won't come back."

"Maybe, I don't agree to your terms!" Apparently he was going to test the waters by being defiant. That was not the best move that he could have made in this game.

I saw the charming grin forming on David's face, "Well, if I recall, a minute ago, Emma explained to you option number two." David stepped a little closer to the cell, "is that a chance that you want to take, because, I pretty certain that no one will come looking for you here in Storybrooke."

It was obvious that Zeke did not want to concede to David's demands, but he didn't have much of a choice. He cocked his head to the side as if he was actually pondering his choices. "Fine," he finally said.

"Good, I'm glad that we understand each other." David unlocked the cell and led the older man to the interrogation room. Once he had Zeke cuffed to the table, he let Mary Margaret enter the room with him. I stayed behind to keep an eye on my sleeping brother. David and Mary Margaret both sat at the table, and I chose to watch them through the one way glass.

Mary Margaret had just let David do the interrogation. She sat there hanging on to his every word. If I didn't know better, I would say that she was actually sitting plotting ways to kill him and make it look like and accident. Don't misunderstand me, my parents were not murderous psychopaths. I actually admired them for their ability to see the best in just about anyone, but all bets were definitely off when it came to me or my brother. "I think we all know that you being here, in Storybrooke, is not an accident. How'd you get here?"

"Wouldn't you rather know why I'm here rather than how I'm here? Because, I think that you have already figured out how I got here. And don't you want to know about your kid's life before Storybrooke? I would think that every long lost parent would want to hear those stories."

"Alright, let's get one thing straight right now…anything about my kid's life before Storybrooke will come from my kid. Got it? She's the one that I trust, not you." I smiled a little when I heard him say that he trusted me.

"She was a good kid, when she came to live with us. Quiet. She just wanted to live her life and not bother anyone. But you could see in her eyes that she harbored a lot of resentment, towards her parents. She and JC made a connection to one another right away. They became close to one another, looked out for each other, like real siblings would do."

David's face was getting red at Zeke's intentional defiance, "I told you, to leave her out of this!" He yelled.

Zeke raised his voice and pointed a finger in his direction, "You need a history lesson here, Daddy!" David quickly stood. I thought that he was going to lunge at the older man, but instead he curled his fingers into a fist and began pacing the room. He was using every ounce of self control that his body possessed to not fly across the table and strangle the man. I was trying to determine where exactly Zeke was going with his 'history lesson.' Because if his intent was to hurt my parents; I was going to kill him myself.

Zeke continued with his story, "I'm not telling you all of this because I'm trying to make excuses, but so you can understand the full picture here. I had a problem with alcohol back then; I got into a bad way. That's when I learned of your world and its inhabitants."

"You're not from the Enchanted Forest?" My mother interrupted.

"You don't know it all, girlie." Ugh, there was that word again. Apparently my mother didn't like the term much either, judging by the daggers her eyes were throwing at him. "This isn't going to be easy for you to hear. I was drinking my way out of a job, and instead of one kid to support I had two. I met this man who seemed to know an awful lot about your daughter. Said she was destined to complete some great task. He told me that if I stopped her, he would make sure that all of my debt was cleared. I was supposed to make sure that she died that night."

My father sat down again. I watched as he slipped his hand into my mother's then I closed my eyes; my heart broke for my parents who just heard that the most torturous night that I ever lived through was actually supposed to be the night of my death. And the man who had become their friend in the last couple was weeks; was responsible. "Who was the man?" my father's voice cracked through the tears that he was trying to hold back. "Who was he?" David slammed his fist down onto the table, making everyone jump.

"His name was Malcolm." Zeke answered.

"Malcolm? Who's Malcolm?" my mother asked. She wiped a stray tear from her face. I knew exactly who Malcolm was, although I knew him as a different name.

"You would know him as Peter Pan," Zeke explained. They all sat in silence for a minute as they wrapped their heads around the fact Peter Pan tried to have me killed to stop me from breaking the curse. And that he almost succeeded. After a couple of minutes, Zeke just started to volunteer information, "I failed. She broke the curse. And now, she is destined for a much bigger job."

"Bigger job? What are you talking about?" my mother questioned through the confused expression on her face.

"I don't have those answers. You need to look within your family." Ok, that was now the third person to say that exact same thing. My family was in this room and none of us, knew what the hell that statement was supposed to mean.

"How did you get in this town?" David asked coyly.

"Ah…now you're getting it. Do you mind?" Zeke lifted his cuffed hands up indicating that he needed to have them taken off. David obliged by unlocking one hand. Zeke slowly showed his free hand then moved it to his shirt pocket. He pulled out a small medal and tossed it on the table. "There's your trinket; the one that allowed me to enter the town."

David picked it up, the looked on his faced showed that he recognized the small medal. "Where did you get this?"

"You're father." Zeke answered.

"My father? My father is dead…" Zeke shook his head in disagreement. David understood, "King George."

This was all getting confusing, what did King George have to do with Zeke? It wasn't making any sense. Apparently, David had thought the same thing, judging by the next question that he had asked. "What is your involvement with King George?"

A sly smile crossed Zeke's lips, "King George, paid me handsomely to make sure that you're nephew made it to Storybrooke and united with your daughter."

"Nephew? I don't have a nephew." David looked to Mary Margaret. I'm guessing that he had hoped that she knew something that he didn't, but her stare was just as blank as mine. What nephew?

"I've held up my end of the bargain. I've told you what I know. I've held up my end with King George. Now it's your turn. Take me to the town line." I guess this was where Zeke's help ended.

"I have one more question…" Zeke knew what the question was and answered it before he David had even asked.

"You need to talk to JC about that." Zeke held up his other cuffed hand. "Shall we go?" David unlocked the cuffs escorted out of the room. Zeke stopped abruptly when he saw me, causing David to crash into his back. "For what's it worth, Princess, I'm sorry."

It wasn't worth much. "Let's go," David said has he pushed him forward.

Mary Margaret stepped up to me. She glided one of her hands down the side of my cheek before she pulled me into a bone crushing hug. "I'm so, so very sorry, baby." She whispered to me. I felt her hot tears hit my shoulder. I closed my eyes and hugged her back as tightly as she was holding me. I had never intended for them to learn any of this, and now they knew it all. Maybe it was for the best.

When my mother finally pulled back from the hug, she placed a kiss on my cheek. As time went on, I was getting more used to their show of affection toward me. Actually I was really beginning to like it. I took a deep breath and smiled at her. I stepped around her to enter the interrogation room. I had remembered that Zeke placed a medal on the table and nobody had ever picked it up. It didn't take me long to realized where I had seen this medal before. It was the emblem that was in the picture on the inventory card, at the pawn shop, of the Crystal Swan that I had bought for my mother. "Where the hell did King George get this?"


	19. Chapter 19 - Family night Part 1

**I decided to break this chapter up into two parts. The first part came out a little more emotional that I had originally intended. But I felt that the content in this chapter needed to happen. Enjoy...Thank you again to all of my readers and reviewers. You are GREAT! Thank you for boosting the reviews over 100! Please Review!**

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Chapter 19 - Family Night Part 1

I was exhausted though I didn't want to admit it. I lagged behind as I followed Mary Margaret into the loft. What I really wanted to do was go haul King George into the station and grill him for answers. Instead, I flopped down on the couch to wait for David to return from pushing Zeke over the town line. I watched my little brother toddle around the room in his walker. My mother had made a beeline for the kitchen. I heard her pull some items out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter. My guess was she was getting ready to make dinner. Every minute or so she would glance up to check on my brother, but her gaze would always shift to me.

It surprised when I saw her walking in my direction when a cup of hot chocolate in each of her hands. I hadn't realized that she was making it; I just assumed that she was focused on dinner. "Are you ok, honey?" she held one cup out in my direction.

I sat up and accepted the hot drink. My mother and I always had our serious talks over a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon. I didn't answer her question though, I didn't feel like talking. Or at least I didn't think that I felt like talking. I didn't know that the words were actually coming out of my mouth until I heard her response to the question that I thought was only jumping around inside my head, "why didn't Dad let me go with him?" I sounded like a 10 year old that was upset that Daddy didn't take me to the ballgame.

"Oh, honey," she sat down next to me. I turned my head to look at her. She pushed her lips into a thin line and tilted her head to the side. "This was something that he needed to do. Just him and…Mr. Cooper…obviously."

I felt the concern that was building in the pit of my stomach, "what was he going to do?" I couldn't hide the twinge of fear that was in my voice.

She reached up to brush the hair out of my eyes and tucked a couple of stray strands behind my ear, "Nothing, sweetheart. He was only taking him to the town line and ensuring his departure."

"That's the part that I'm worried about…ensuring his departure…from the town or from the world." It wasn't a question. Just a statement of what was weighing on my mind. I finally had a father who loved me and wanted me; I didn't want to lose him over something that happened almost sixteen years ago.

"Emma…" my mother started, but I cut her off. I knew that she was going to try to convince me that David just drove the man to the town line and said 'see ya later.' But I knew my father better than that; I knew that there would be nothing less than fists involved.

"No, don't Emma me." My words were sharp and biting, "You know him as well as I do, better than I do, actually. And you know that I'm his 'little princess'…his 'baby girl'…" yes I put the air quotes around the pet names to help prove my point. "And this whole damn town knows what would happen if anyone were to touch one hair on the head of David Nolan's only daughter…and it wouldn't be pretty."

She tried to hide the slight smile that curved her lips. I knew why she was smiling; this was the first time that I had ever admitted out loud that I was the 'little princess' or 'baby girl' to either of them. It didn't matter that the admission was dripping with sarcasm; it didn't make it any less true. In her eyes, I had just cemented what they had worked so hard to achieve; and that was me being able to accept them as and let them be my parents. That I was opening my heart and finally letting them in; and with that came the two way street of worry; they worried about me and I worried about them. We had finally made the complete parent/child relationship that we all had always wanted.

"I'm going to upstairs to lie down," I announced. I didn't want to think about it anymore. Instead I thought about Henry's book, which I knew was upstairs in his room. If nothing else, I could do some family research using the book while I waited. Hopefully that would take my mind off of the myriad of things that had ran through my head that my father could have been doing to like run him over with the truck, give him to the fisherman to use as bait, or make him a slave laborer to the dwarfs in the mines. Wow, I was letting my emotions run away with my imagination.

Mary Margaret didn't stop me like I thought that she would do. She just ran her hand down my arm starting at my shoulder and gave me a gentle smile, "Ok, sweetheart. One of us will be up when dinner is ready." I smiled back at her before I stood up and walked away.

I sat on my bed thumbing through Henry's book, but I wasn't really focusing on it. I couldn't. Instead I kept glancing over at the clock wondering what was taking my father so long. It had been over an hour. The town line is not that far away. The longer it took, the more I imagined the worst. Every bad scenario that could possibly enter my brain did enter my brain.

Finally, I heard the apartment door open. The sound of the door was followed by muffled voices downstairs then footsteps rushing up the steps. "Hi, Mom!"

I looked up to see Henry poking his head into my room. I couldn't help but to smile at his face. The epitome of a sight for sore eyes, "Hey Kid, what are you doing here?" It wasn't my week to have him, but I wasn't complaining.

"Gramps picked me up from school…he said that he cleared it with Mom. He said something about family game night after dinner." He shrugged as he explained his reason for being at the loft. I just furrowed my brow at him in confusion, as he continued to talk; "I don't have any homework so Grams said that I could play video games until dinner. Is that ok?"

"Uh…yeah…yeah…that's fine." I hesitated when I answered him. Suddenly I was unsure of anything that was going on in the house. An impromptu family game night and my mother willing allowing Henry to play video games instead of some kind of brain stimulating activity; something was off.

"Mom? Are you ok?" Henry's question pulled me from my reverie.

"Oh, yeah, kid, fine. I was just thinking about something. Go ahead, play your game."

"Ok," He left my room as fast as he entered. Well his head left as fast has his head entered, since he never fully stepped into my room. Anyway, I didn't care; my kid was here for the night; that was all that mattered.

I could hear my parents talking downstairs. I was straining to listen from my bed, if I was a betting person, I would have put money on the fact that David was telling Mary Margaret what happened on his way to the town line with Zeke. What little that I could hear was interrupted with the sudden noises of Henry's video game. I didn't care if he played his game, but I really didn't want to hear it. I got up exited my room to close his door. On my way back to my room, through the balcony railing, I caught a glimpse of my parents snuggled against one another on the couch. I quietly inched my way closer to the railing staying far enough away that I could see them and they couldn't see me, but close enough that I could hear them talk.

My father had his arm wrapped around my mother's shoulders holding her close to his chest. "I think that your game night idea is just what this family needs tonight. We all just need a night to unwind, especially Emma," he praised my mother. So this game night thing was her idea. I guess I couldn't blame her for trying to bring something good to an otherwise horrible day.

Her head was resting on his chest close to his shoulder. I watched as he pushed his lips down onto the top of her head. She closed her eyes at the touch. "She's worried about you?" My mother told him.

"Me? Why?" He pulled back slightly when my mother lifted her head to look at him.

"She's afraid that you did something that you're going to regret. Or worse; something that is inevitably going to make you leave her."

"She told you that?" he questioned.

"Not exactly, I had to read between the lines a little." I listened intently as my mother explained to my father everything that she got out of five minute conversation before I came upstairs. "She referred to herself as your 'little princess' and 'baby girl.'" I laughed quietly when Mary Margaret used the air quotes just as I had earlier. "She was worried about what you were going to do to him." She paused to watch his face as he took in what she was saying to him. I continued to watch and listen. "Charming, she is finally starting to open her heart and let us in. But somewhere deep inside she's still afraid that she is going to lose us again. We can't do that to her."

"We won't," he responded quickly. He pulled my mother's body close to him again. He leaned his head onto hers. I watched him take a deep breath and breathe in her scent. After a long moment he started talking again, "I didn't do anything. To Zeke…" he clarified. "I thought about it. I thought about everything that he did to her. I thought about everything that he said. I came close, but I didn't. I took him to the town line, and helped him across, albeit with my fist, but I helped him across, nonetheless. But I did think about it."

"Oh, Charming," she reached up and took his face into her hands, pulling his lips to hers.

"He nearly killed her, Snow," he said through tears that were starting to fall from his eyes. If he was trying to hold the tears back, he was failing. He started to cry a little harder. My mother wrapped her arms tightly around him, "He nearly killed my baby, Snow."

"David," she just held him tighter. My heart was breaking for my parents, particularly my father. It was just like him to hold it all in until I wasn't around. He never wanted to show me the hurt that he felt; he only ever wanted to be strong for me.

"No, Snow…" he hiccupped as the tears fell in steady stream. "I put her in the hands of that monster. I loved her so much, I wanted to save her, I wanted to make sure that she was safe, that should would have good future and be a good person. And I put her in the hands that monster. My baby, Snow; my little princess. She nearly died because of what I did." He held my mother so tight and just cried into her shoulder. She soothingly rubbed circles on his back, she just let him have his minute to let it all out. All of the anger and contempt that he was holding in just came pouring out.

"Charming, no, you can't do this to yourself. No, no, no…" She used the pads of her thumbs to wipe away his tears. It took everything that I had to resist the urge to run to my dad. I knew why I couldn't, he was holding it in so that I wouldn't see him break down. But he needed this moment with my mom. I was reminded yet again how they just continued to put me first. I continued to stand there and watch my mother talk my father down. "Charming, our daughter is a remarkable human being. She is beautiful, caring, and a good person. She has bright future that includes us. She told me this, and now I'm telling you, she is okay. She really is okay. She survived, and she is better for it."

"How can she even stand to look at me, Snow? Why doesn't she hate me?" His emotions were causing him to be irrational.

"Because you are her father and she loves you. She loves you so very much; I see it every time she looks at you. Every time she comes down those stairs or through that door, when she only see me, she asks 'where's dad'…even if she already knows the answer." I smiled through my own tears. My mother was right; I had even asked it this morning on my way out.

I heard him chuckle a little, "She does the same thing to me about you."

"See…" Their conversation was halted by the oven timer going off. My mother gave him one last kiss before she pushed herself from the couch to address oven. I quietly tiptoed back to my room to grab a tissue. I wanted to give my father a couple of minutes to recompose himself before he saw me.

I waited for about ten minutes before I finally descended the stairs for dinner. I stood on the second step from the bottom for a minute and just watch my father as he set the table. My mother was busy preparing the rest of the salad. When his hands were finally empty, I hurried to him and nearly launched myself into his arms. "I love you, Dad." I whispered, "Don't you ever doubt that."

He held me as tightly as I was holding him. I felt him move his hand to the back of my head to cradle it; like he always did. "You heard?"

I simply nodded. He gave me a kiss to my head, "It's done. He's gone…across the town line with only a few bruises to his face and ego. The rest of this night is family night, okay? We'll deal with everything else tomorrow. Got it?" I nodded my head. All of my life I dreamed of having a Dad to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be ok. I used to think that parents like that didn't exist; that it was just another movie fabrication. I have never been so happy to be proven wrong.


	20. Chapter 20 -Family Night Part 2

**Sorry for the delay, everyone. Some how last week exploded with commitments. But here is some light hearted Charming family fun to start your week. Again, a HUGE THANK YOU to all of my loyal readers and reviews. You are all AWESOME! I hope it's worth the wait! As always, Please review!**

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Chapter 20 – Family Night Part 2

I carried my baby brother into the living room from my parent's bedroom. While they finished cleaning up from dinner, I had offered to get the little squirt ready for bed. I chalked it up to sibling bonding, but in reality I didn't want to be put on dish duty. If there was one household chore that I despised it was cleaning dishes; especially caked on baked on casserole dishes.

I saw Henry flitting about behind my parents. At first I thought he was putting the clean dishes away, but upon closer inspection, it was obvious that he was searching for something. "Kid?..."

"Hmm…" He didn't look at me, he just continued his search. "Ah, found it." He pulled a mason jar full of popcorn kernels from the back of the pantry closet. His next mission consisted of finding the air popper.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, but I was looking at my parents. I had Neal propped up on top of the island with my hands tucked under his little arms to keep him steady. His chubby hand reached out toward my face to grab my nose. Which was infinitely better that grabbing my hair.

"Making popcorn…Isn't it obvious?" he said in a snarky tone.

"Kid, we just ate dinner, like, twenty minutes ago…" I laughed it off, figuring that he was joking. It wasn't like Henry to speak to anyone like that unless it was in jest. But, apparently my mother didn't think so. She spun around with the spatula that she was washing still in her hand flinging water at David, Neal, and myself in the process, "Henry, you do not speak to your mother that way."

"Sorry…" Henry looked at me with pleading eyes. I just shrugged as I accepted a piece of paper towel that David handed me to wipe off the water. I had no idea what had gotten into her at that moment. She had a weird look on her face, it somehow showed annoyance and mischief all mixed together; if that was even possible.

"Snow, relax…" My father pulled the spatula from her hand to dry it off. He reached around her to give her a side hug, "he was just teasing." She cracked a small smile but didn't respond.

I got up from my perch and slipped Neal into his walker. I walked toward the refrigerator and as I walked behind Henry, I smacked him in the back of the head with my hand. "Owe…what was that for?" He asked rubbing the back of his head with his own hand.

"For pissing off your grandmother," I responded. I reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer. I looked at the brand label to make sure that the cap was a twist off; I didn't want to have to fight my way to the utensil drawer for the bottle open in the crowded kitchen.

"What are you doing?" My mother asked me on my way past her when I went back to my seat at the island. The sharp up pitch in her voice made it sound as if I was about to break some federal law.

"What?" I looked at her dumbfounded. She pointed to the bottle that I set on the counter. "Oh…" I pinched my eyebrows and raised my shoulders with a shrug. Wasn't it self explanatory? "Popcorn and beer…two great foods that tastes great together. It's kinda like peanut butter and chocolate." She reached up and pulled the bottle away from me, "Hey…what are you doing?" I whined. I found myself doing that a lot more toward my parents lately. I guess that was part of the parent/child relationship going full circle thing.

"You can't drink that in front of your child," what the hell was she talking about. It wasn't like this was the first time that I had a drink in front of Henry. I always made sure to show him that my actions were responsible. Besides wasn't it her to told me to let him have one small drink of champagne at her 'not a birthday party' party? What in the world had gotten into my mother tonight?

The shocked expression on my face hadn't left, it only intensified when my mouth gaped open, and I couldn't define my reaction as anything but confounded. "Seriously? Then what the hell did you buy it for if I can't drink it?" I looked to my father for help. He just snickered as he pulled another dish to dry from the strainer. He was no help.

"I bought it for your father…" he playfully stuck out his tongue in my direction as she made her announcement. He grabbed the bottle and took a swig of my beer. I pushed my open palms in his direction as if to say 'what the hell.'

"Oh no…" I argued. I gave him a smirk that said 'watch this', I was going to play dirty. "No, if I can't drink it in front of my kid, then he can't drink it front of his kid. Especially when said kid, wants one." I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms waiting for my mother to make her next move.

"She's right," my mother picked up the opened bottle of beer and poured it down the drain with the rest of the used dish water. Well, that wasn't the reaction I was expecting. She was supposed to give in to my pout.

"Mom…" I said with the same offended tone that my father used to say "Snow…" at the same time. She ignored both of us. She turned to the fridge to pull out some other drink.

"Sunny D?" I asked in disbelief, I held up the bottle that she handed me. "You're giving us Sunny D to drink with popcorn on game night?" I looked over to my son who was leaning against the counter with a full bowl of popcorn in his hands. He had a shit eating grin plastered, all over his face. I narrowed my eyes at him, "you two had this little charade planned out, didn't you?"

My mother was quick to jump to his defense, "Emma…" she started, but I shut her down.

"Talkin' to the kid…" He was easier to break than she was. "Henry?" I used my mother tone, but it was the mother glare that would get him all of the time. I didn't even realize that I had a 'mother glare' until Henry came into my life, I guess it was one of those instinctual things.

"I just wanted some popcorn," he tried to act all innocent. But I just added the tilt of the head to the mother glare. The glare came in three parts. The first part was the narrowing of the eyes, the second part was the raise of an eyebrow while still keeping one eye narrowed, and the final part was the tilt of the head both back a little and to the side. The tilt just added that little bit of emphasis that would give that last push. It was the look that told every kid, 'don't mess with me, kid, I brought you into this world, I can take you out.' I watched him lift his index finger from the bowl and point it in the direction of my mother.

"Henry…" she sounded offended.

"Sorry Grams, but did you see her look? That look scares me," he admitted trying to defend himself.

"And where do you think that she got it from?" he gulped at her response. Now he was getting the look from his mother and his grandmother.

I went to the refrigerator but this time I pulled out two beers; one for me and one for my father. "I'm on to you, mother. This is your way to coerce me into playing that game I hate."

"And which game is that, Emma? You hate so many of them, it's hard to keep track." Oh, guilt ridden deflection; my mother was getting good. I was going to have to step up my game.

"Oh, no…you know which game I'm talking about; that one that you love to play, where you stick the word on your head and your partner has to guess it? You thought that if you got me to argue over something else, I would give into the game."

I was about to continue my protest, but suddenly I had a wonderful idea. My mother loved that game, mainly because she was so good at it. And she was competitive. But she was always partners with my father, those two always had their silent conversations with each other and during the game their little superpower was always on overdrive. "I'll play it, on one condition," my willingness to concede attracted everyone's attention. So, I smirked and gave my demands, "Dad is my partner."

My father was quick to say "okay" with a smile. But my mother was a bit bewildered. By nature, humans are a creature of habit and game night for my mother was no exception. It was like there was an unwritten rule that said she was always partners with my father; both in life and in game land. And I; I was mixing it up. "Okay…" she said dragging out the word with trepidation in her voice. I smiled; this was going to be fun.

You see, I had this trick up my sleeve. And since my mother thought her little stunt was fair game; then it was only appropriate that I retaliate. Right? It seemed logical to me. I just had to figure out how to get my father to catch on without drawing attention to us. My plan was simple, but it required a bit of an explanation.

A couple of weeks after JC showed up in Storybrooke, I read an article about ASL, American Sign Language. I was reminded of something that we used to do in high school. Some people might have called it cheating, but I called it being resourceful. Final exams were stressful, no matter what the class. I was studying hard for them that year, because I didn't need to add bad grades to the list of things that Mr. Cooper had to be pissed about. JC was studying for his final exams as well; it was his spring semester in his freshman year of college. One of his requirements was a semester of a foreign language and he thought that it would be cool to take ASL. Throughout the semester he used me as his ASL study partner. The most that I picked up was the alphabet. But that was enough. That was when the idea to take the best student in the class and teach them the alphabet in ASL came to life. Our school did not have any deaf students so the teachers really didn't know the language. Anyway, to make a long story short, my friends and I picked the smartest kid that we could convince to go along with our plan, and talked her into giving us the answers to the multiple choice and true and false, during the test in sign language. It worked perfectly. And I aced my exams that year.

Anyway, as I sat in my office that day and read the article, I absentmindedly began to run the ASL alphabet. Just to see how much I could remember. Believe it or not, I remembered it all. But what I didn't realize was that David was sitting at his desk watching me; until he asked me what I was doing. I relayed my story to him and when he seemed intrigued I taught him the ASL alphabet. Storybrooke didn't have any deaf residents so nobody really knew of the language. The closest person the town had to being deaf was Dopey, who was mute, and he used DSL, Dopey Sign Language. Most people just communicated with him through the other dwarfs. So as for my plan for game night; once I was able to get my father on board it would be easy, discreetly spell out the word on each other's head, in American Sign Language.

Setting up the game was easy, everyone got a head band and we shuffled the word cards. I was feeling pretty confident; especially since I had sat strategically at the table. We sat across from our partners, so I made sure that my mother was next to me; that way she didn't have a full on view of what I was doing, she only had a side view. "Why don't we make this game a little more fun," I suggested quickly gaining the looks of my family, "why don't we put a little wager on it."

"Someone is feeling a little confident, tonight?" Yeah, leave it to my overly competitive mother to make a comment like that.

"No, I'm serious; losers cook dinner and clean up afterward for a week. What do ya think?" I winked at my Dad. He understood my clue. He knew that he was going to need to look for something; my only hope was that he remembered what I taught him.

"Mom, I'm not sure that's a good idea…you can't cook." I feigned offense to my son's comment.

"Thanks, kid. You're still alive, aren't you?" I retorted.

"Yeah, but that's mostly due to school lunches and the deli that was next to our apartment building in New York." I felt my face blush with embarrassment. My kid just told my parents that the only thing that kept him alive for a year was subpar school meals and a New York Deli. This was war.

I opened my mouth to fire a remark back to my son only to be interrupted by my mother who was about to diffuse our banter. "Ok, losers cook and clean for a week…got it...let's start." So, I settled for a 'you're going down' smirk, instead.

I was impressed; it only took three turns for my father to catch on to the plan. I guess working together in law enforcement kept us keen on each other's body language. From what I could tell, my mom and Henry were so focused on each other that neither of them caught on to the excessive hand movements that my father and I were both doing. Every once in a while I would shake my hand in a manner that made it look like I was just shaking out a small cramp or something.

We had a solid lead at 7 to 2. The first team to make it to 10 was declared the winner. With each passing turn my mother was getting more frustrated with Henry's ability to ask meaningless questions to figure out his word. "Does it have seven legs?" he asked my mother.

The look on her face was priceless, "Henry, what on earth has seven legs?" she dropped her face into her hands.

"A spider that was in accident and had to have a leg amputated," he replied as a matter of fact. I couldn't help but laugh at that one. Especially when he came up with a back-story about how the spider was drafted into the war. It was the spider's job to bite the enemy injecting poison into their veins that would cause death, but the spider was hit by stray shrapnel causing it to lose his leg, thus sending him back stateside and being discharged from the arachnid army.

Then it was my father's turn. His word was toast. I quickly spelled it out for him before he asked his question. He was really getting the hang of the sign language spelling. He was even able to tell the difference between a sign and my stretching my hand to make it look like it was bothering me for some reason.

"Is it brown and sometimes crunchy?" he asked while I rubbed my hand.

I nodded to my father, but before he could say the word my mother spoke up, "Is there something wrong with your hand, honey?"

"Ah…no" I answered quickly.

"Toast," he yelled to try to pull her attention to him.

She lifted my hand to inspect it, "It's nothing, Mom, I just hit it off of the desk at work and it's a little sore." Sounded like a reasonable excuse.

"Maybe you should put some ice on it." She suggested. "Henry, go get your mother an ice pack." Henry jumped up before I could protest. Dad had just gotten, toast, and we only needed two more points. I couldn't sign with an ice pack on my hand. At least it was my turn to guess next.

Henry returned with the ice pack for me and we returned to the game, it was my mother's turn, "Is it purple?" she asked about her word. Henry shook his head with a frown. Yes, it was my turn. David quickly signed out flashlight, but it was a long word. Too long, really, he forgot to make a couple of letters and the look on his face was enough to give my mother pause. She sent him a curious look but didn't say anything. I was, however, able to pick up on the word and asked my question, "Does it shine?"

"Yes," my father answered, but I let the turn slide with a fake guess of light bulb. Hopefully that was enough to throw her off of our trail of deception.

Henry was up, still on his same word as before, bicycle. "Is it covered in slime?" he asked my mother. She just slowly shook her head in disgust.

It was back to us. But now, I suddenly had an unnecessary ice pack on my signing hand. The word was sandwich, and I had to sign it with the wrong hand. I started slowly, David tried to make it look as if he was thinking of a question, but "hey…" was what I heard coming from my son's mouth. "She's using sign language," he accused.

Shit, how the hell did he know ASL? "I am not…" was the only defense I had. I was caught, by my kid, no less.

"I can't believe that you two were cheating!" My mother sounded offended, but then a smile crept across her face, "We win!" She declared.

"What? No! You don't win, it is 9 to 3." I protested. I wasn't going down without a fight. But I was a little confused when she took the icepack from my hand and began to inspect it again.

"I don't see a bruise," she sounded puzzled, "you said you hit it on your desk?" I just looked at her. Where was she going with this? Then she started squeezing it.

"Owe, owe, owe…" damn my mother was strong.

"Don't cut yourself while you're cooking this week, dear." She let go of my hand and leaned over to kiss my cheek, "cuts hurt when you're washing the dishes." She got up and walked around the table to my father; she leaned down and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. He beamed at me, so sure that he wasn't in as much trouble as me, "you might want to make sure you have enough blankets for the couch, Charming. Come on, Henry, let's get some ice cream."

I ducked my head when I saw my father's icy glare. I somehow got the feeling that the next week of my life was going to be hell. But it was worth it, if it got my family to think about something other than Mr. Cooper for just a minute, then it was definitely worth every ounce of cooking, cleaning, and snide remarks from my father.


	21. Chapter 21 - One Moment in Time

**Hi Folks - He is the next chapter. Sorry that it took so long, I was having a bit of an issue with my computer. But it is fixed now. My goal was to have this up yesterday, but I didn't like the way I had ended it, so it needed to be changed. Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers. I truly appreciate all of your feedback. You guys are fantastic. And, as always, please review. Let me know what you're thinking! Enjoy!**

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Chapter 21 - One Moment in Time

The spring sun broke through my bedroom window pulling me from the last evenings sleep. I groaned as I rolled over to shield myself from the bright rays and maybe get another thirty minutes of slumber. But I knew that wasn't meant to be as soon as I heard the familiar chirp of my phone indicating that I had received a text message.

It took a minute for my eyes to focus on the small print, especially since I didn't have my contacts in or my glasses on. It was blurry but I was able to make out that it was from JC; 'on the 6:15 am flight out of LAX. Be in Storybrooke late this afternoon.'

I sat up and rubbed my hand over my face, trying to rub off the sleep. In all of the excitement of yesterday, I had completely forgotten about JC coming straight to Storybrooke from Los Angeles. We were supposed to confront Mr. Cooper together when he arrived, "I guess that won't be happening," I mumbled to myself as I lifted my body from the bed.

I pulled my hair into a messy pony tail and made my way to the stairs. Looking around I had seen that Henry had already left for school. It was just my brother, my parents, and me in the loft. I looked over to the kitchen as I reached the bottom of the stairs, "not what I needed to see," I complained when I saw my parents standing next to the sink kissing. "Ah, come on guys, don't you have any compassion for your daughter, whom you love so very much? Dad, could you at least put on a shirt," I whined as I looked away from their make out session in the kitchen that they still hadn't pulled back from. Sure, it was cute that they loved each other so much, and I longed to someday have a relationship with someone that was filled with as much love as theirs, but it was still too early to be flaunting it outside of the confines of their bedroom.

I stopped in my tracks when I caught a glimpse of the couch. Wasn't my father supposed to have been sleeping on the couch after our little cheating escapade last night? There was no evidence of anyone having sat on the couch, let alone sleeping on it. My leather jacket was still strewn in the middle of it; right where I threw it when I came home from the station yesterday.

"Why do you let them do this stuff in front of us?" I asked my baby brother who was content in his high chair playing with a tray full of cheerios. He just giggled and threw a piece of cereal in my direction. "Thanks for sharing, but I'll get my own." I said as I picked the slobbery cheerio off of my shirt and flicked it back at him.

I walked around the two love birds to get myself a bowl, but my dad caught my arm on my way past. Great, now he was multitasking. He finally pulled away from my mother and pointed to the bowl of cereal that he already had poured for me. "Nice of you two to come up for air long enough to feed your child a bowl of cereal. The least you could have done was to make me some bacon pancakes if you were going to subject me to your morning PDA."

Mary Margaret threw me a cross look. "Funny how my child is always telling me that she is 30 years old and can take care of herself," I screwed up my face in a gentle protest of my mother using my words against me.

"Didn't we establish last night, that I can't cook. Or I would make my own breakfast." I still harbored a small amount of animosity over Henry's cooking comment yesterday. It was true to a point, cooking was not my strongest skill set, but the food that I made wasn't poison either. I poured the milk on my cereal and splashed small amount in the nearby mug to fill with coffee. "Which, speaking of cooking, I take it that since Dad didn't sleep on the couch; you're not holding us to that little wager?"

"Oh no, sweetheart, I'm holding you to it. You and your Dad are on dinner duty for a week." She poured some coffee in my mug then lifted her own mug to her lips. She cradled her mug in her both of her hands like she was using the heat of the hot liquid warm them up. She held the her mug close to her face hiding the smirk on her lips but the raise of her eyebrows was clearly visible.

"What?" I used my moody teenager voice. "Wh…what about last night? What happened to 'Charming make sure you have enough blankets for the couch?'" My tone was very mocking and condescending.

"Come on Em, you didn't really think that I would make your father sleep on the couch, did you?" I didn't like the sultry look that was on my mother's face.

My father, who was standing behind my mother and still did not have on a shirt, snaked his arms around her waist pulling her closer to his body, "I have ways of making your mother change her mind." And that comment didn't help.

I dropped my spoon and curled my upper lip in disgust, "Eeeww…gross." I pushed away my bowl of unfinished cereal.

"You had to come from somewhere…" He gave me a sly smile then leaned his head forward and began to kiss the nape of her neck.

"You did not just bring my conception into this." It wasn't a question. More like a horrified revelation. That was it, I had just about enough of 'mentally scar Emma' day. So I used the only defense that I had; I pointed to the two of them, "That right there is why you are getting granny's take out all week…on paper plates." It was weak, but it was all that I had at the moment.

They both began to laugh, uncontrollably, I might add. "Oh, come on, Em…" my father tried to talk to me. I took to opportunity to add to my point.

"…with plastic forks…"

"Emma…" my mother pleaded through a laugh.

"…and knives…"

I turned to retreat upstairs to change my clothes for the day, "get your orders in to me noon today, otherwise it is grilled cheese and onion rings all week," I called over my shoulder as I stomped up the stairs to my bedroom.

The rest of my morning and afternoon went off pretty seamlessly. I also didn't receive any menu orders from my illustrious parents. That meant one of two things, they either didn't care if dinner was grilled cheese and onion rings or they didn't take my threat seriously. I was leaning toward the latter. I guess that summed into one solution; I just had to make good on my promise. I called my order into Ruby and told her that I would pick it up at five.

Things in town were pretty quiet that afternoon, it made it hard to keep my mind off of JC coming into town and telling him about my father helping him across the town line. I had wanted to go out to find King George and drag him in for questioning, but David advised against it. He said that before we confronted him, we had to be armed with every piece of information that we could find and that meant talking to JC first. I decided to take David's advice and leave King George alone for the time being. David had taken him on before and experience is a hard thing to argue against.

"You look deep in thought," I jumped when I heard the voice. I was reading an article that I had found on the internet about bottlenose dolphins getting lost in the fresh water rivers that empty into the ocean. At least, I think that was what the article was about, I was really just reading the words without really comprehending them. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

I held a long blink before I responded to JC who had just walked into the station. "What? Oh…no…Sorry, I was just engrossed in this article."

He peaked around the monitor to see what I had opened on the screen, "Freshwater sharks?"

"Sharks, really?" I looked at the screen. I'll be damned, it was talking about sharks. Sharks…dolphins…they all swim in the ocean.

"Emma? Are you ok? What did you think that article was about?" he asked. "Or more importantly, what was going on in your head that you weren't really reading the words?"

I gave him a quick smile before I answered. "You, actually..."

"Ah…I see." He leaned against my desk and studied my face a minute before he continued. "I'm here now; we can take care of Cooper and get on with our lives."

"Yeah, that won't be necessary." I never took the time to update JC on the events that occurred after we last talked.

"And why is that?" The look on his face said that he already knew the answer to that question. But I answered him anyway.

"My father…" Those were the only words that I needed to say.

"Ah ha…" JC looked away from me. To any other person that action would have indicated that he didn't know what to say, but I read something else. I read guilt.

"He didn't go quietly," I offered. "As a matter of fact, I think that there were a couple of left hooks and right crosses involved in his enticement to leave town."

"Did you think that he would?" JC still wasn't looking at me. There must have been something very interesting on the floor, because he was staring a hole into it.

"JC, I'm going to be real clear…" I stood from my chair and closed the door to my office. I didn't want anyone who may have walked in to overhear any part of our conversation. Conveniently, it was an action that got him to look at me. I positioned myself in front of him and crossed my arms. "You're going to cut the crap and tell me everything that you know. Starting with how long you've known that you were my cousin."

He wasn't quick to give up anything. He stayed there for a long moment trying to form the right words. "Do your parents know?" he finally asked without giving me an answer.

"No, you don't get to ask the questions here." I yelled in frustration. "How long have you known?"

"It was right after you left." He stood upright and began to pace the small office. "I didn't know until after he was in jail that Cooper wasn't my real father."

I nearly fell over. I couldn't believe it, he had known since I was sixteen years old. How in the hell did everyone know who I was when I was a teenager except for me. "Go on…" I strongly urged. I uncrossed my arms and hooked my thumbs onto the back pocket of my jeans, prepping myself for the story that I was about to hear.

He sucked in a deep breath. "After I gave you the money and plane ticket, I had to adjust to taking care of my mother. Her recovery was long, and I actually took a semester off from school. I used that time to start going through his things to get the house cleaned out. My mother wanted to sell it. To be completely rid of him. In the process I found my birth certificate. I asked questions when I saw that Cooper wasn't listed as my father. My father was listed as James Prince. Suddenly years of beatings and antipathy made perfect sense."

I offered him the bottle of water that was on my desk. He looked like he needed a drink, although something harder would have probably been a better choice. "What else…" my tone a bit softer, I didn't need to give him any reason to lie to me. And being harsh would have done just that.

"My mother wasn't being very forthcoming with information. But I became obsessed with finding this James Prince. But one thing that wasn't adding up was my birth date. On my birth certificate it was listed as me being born two years later than I was told. She was hoping that I didn't remember, and honestly I didn't. But when I questioned that, she broke down and told me that the date was the day that we came through the portal. I didn't believe her at first. I thought that she was delusional from the blows to the head. But I began to have flashes. Memory flashes of the enchanted forest and coming through the portal."

"You were born in the Enchanted Forest?" I didn't know what else to say.

He just shrugged then continued his story, "I went to a psychiatrist to try to piece it all together. But being only two years old when it happened, flashes were all that I was able to get. So it was back to hounding my mother. She explained that she got pregnant to Prince James, but he didn't want his father to know. It was taboo for a Prince of his caliber to have any type of relations with a peasant girl. He procured a magic bean for her and told her that using the bean to leave would be best for her and me. He feared that King George would kill us both."

"Stole it from the Giants, is more like it…" I interrupted. He shot me a look. "Sorry…continue." I said with a small smirk. I knew the story between my uncle and Anton's people. It wasn't pretty and Anton nearly killed my father over it 30 years later because he mistook my father for my uncle. My uncle James and his fling Jacqueline had ravished the Giant's land looking to get their hands on the rest of the beans. Anton was able to destroy the crop; save for one piece of plant root that was hidden on the body of Anton's brother; before James was able to succeed.

"She promised him that she would use it right away, but instead she ran off into hiding for the next two years; with the help of King George."

"I thought that James didn't want him to know?" I asked; this was getting more confusing by the minute.

"He didn't. And I guess he thought that he had my mother out in time with the bean. But George did know and he kidnapped my mother. He made it look like he was going to take care of her, but she was his prisoner and when I was old enough, she was to hand over me to him. I think that he was going to claim me as his son when I was old enough should anything happen to James. I guess he wasn't expecting James' demise to be as soon as it was. Although my mother was still being kept by King George he wasn't ready for me just yet; which was when your father was brought in to take James' place. You pretty much know the rest."

I nodded my head, "when did she use the bean?" I asked. I knew that was the only way that she could have gotten to this world and not have been affected by the curse.

"Right before the dark curse hit. After your father rebelled against King George with your mother, he took her and fled. She knew that the curse was coming and that you were to be the savior in 28 years time, but she didn't want to be cursed with him, so she used the bean and we landed here." He answered. "She was lost and scared when she got here. She was a single woman with no knowledge of this world, no money, and a two year old kid. She hitched our way to a truck stop just outside of Boston. That's where she met Cooper. He helped to get her established, took care of me and her. It was a great family for a while."

There was no doubt that I was completely overwhelmed by all that JC had just told me. He was my father's nephew and all along, he knew it. He was also the family that I was told on several occasions that I had to look to for answers. I took a couple of minutes to pause and just digest everything that he just confessed to me. But it led to one burning question and he had the answer. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying to find the courage to ask it. I had a feeling that I didn't want to know the answer. It was the other comment that went along with the 'ask your family' advice. The question came out with my exhale, "So what is this big job that I destined to complete?"

"We…" was what he said as he put his hand to his chin. "We are to complete. It is a job that we are destined to complete together because we are the eldest children of the twin brothers."

I didn't speak; mostly because I didn't know what to say. So, I just waited for him to continue. "The brothers were never together were never meant to be together as brothers. But you and I were meant to bring that bond back together as their children. And when we do, time will be reset."

"Reset? What the hell are you talking about? Reset how?" I did not like the sound of that at all. "And what the hell do you mean by bring the bond together? We've known each other for years, we've been like brother and sister; how much more of a bond can we have or 'bring together'?"

"I don't know. I had the same question, what are we meant to do that will ultimately bring that bond together? All that I know is that time will be reset back to one singular event that happened; an event that will change the course of everything that has happened in the last 30 years."

"What event? What will the effects be? What will happen?" Suddenly I as full of panic and worry; I traveled to the past before and screwed up the time line. That little trip was nearly disastrous. What in the world would resetting an event in time do to everyone?

I felt myself stumble. My legs couldn't hold me up any longer. My stomach hurt, it felt like someone had punched me really hard in the gut. My head was pounding like someone was beating on it with a hammer. My hands went cold and I felt JC grab my arms as my legs finally gave out. The world went black.


	22. Chapter 22 - Hospital

**Hi All, here's a small filler chapter to bridge that gap and start your weekend. Thank you to all of my awesome readers and reviewers! I can not explain how much your feedback means to me! As always, please tell me what you think! Oh, I also wanted to add that if there is another site out there that you know of that links to stories, please feel free to share! I don't mind! **

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Chapter 22

I woke up in a hospital bed. I lifted my left hand only to wince in pain. I looked down to see an IV stuck in the back of it. I wanted to rub my face, but I couldn't because my hand had a needle stuck into it. I closed my eyes and my head bounced back onto my pillow. I tried to pick it up again, but it just seemed to be so heavy. I was so disoriented. I felt someone holding and rubbing small circles the back of my right hand. It was a dainty; I followed the trail from the fingers up the arm and to the face of the woman. My head was in a fog; was that my mother that was sitting next to my bed? "Mom?" I croaked out barely above a whisper.

"Shh..take it easy, sweetheart." I heard her say. Her voice was calming. It made me feel content. I nodded and closed my eyes, squeezing the hand that was holding mine just a little. I tried to lift my other hand to my face again, but the pinch from the IV shot through my hand and up my arm.

"Wh…what happened?" I stuttered. The confusion and cloudiness was so overwhelming. I couldn't remember what had happened or how I had gotten to the hospital. I looked around the room, looking for a clue; any clue. I saw someone sitting on the chair in the corner. The lights were dim and my head was pounding, I wasn't coherent enough to decide who the person was, but it looked to be male. "Dad?" I guessed.

The figure moved to my bedside, "I'm right here, baby." He brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes.

"What's going on? Where's Kil..Killian?" I couldn't talk without some kind of hitch or stutter. But I didn't have the energy to move let alone care about how I was talking.

"Killian went to pick up Henry from school. You passed out at the station. JC called the ambulance and they rushed you to the ER." She explained it all to me but I still did not comprehend her words.

"JC?" It barely came out of my mouth. Bits and pieces of what had happened started to fill in the gaps of my memory. I remembered him showing up at the station and us talking. But right now, I just couldn't recall the conversation.

I followed my father with my eyes as he crossed the room toward the door. "I'll have the nurse call Dr. Whale," he announced and my mother nodded.

"I don't feel good…" I muttered. "I think I'm going to…" I didn't get the words out of my mouth when I began to dry heave. My mother was quick to hold an appropriate bag to my mouth. My head was pounding and the whole world seemed to be spinning.

"It's ok, sweetheart, just rest. Dr. Whale will be by in a minute." She began to run her fingers through my long hair. It was a gesture that I had wished for a million times when I was sick as a child and it was one that I reveled in now that I was an adult with a mother to comfort me.

"Well, hello there, Sheriff Swan." Dr. Whale had just entered the room followed by one of the nurses and David. The nurse was pushing a cart that had all of the normal equipment to check vital signs. Dr. Whale pulled a stool close to the bed as the nurse began to use her tools from the cart. "How are you feeling?" he asked looking down at his clipboard with a pen in his hand.

"Like I was hit by a truck," I responded; words were coming easier now as was the sarcasm. How did he think that I felt?

I saw my mother raise the bag before she dropped it in the trash, "she just a…"

"Uh, yeah…that is to be expected after a shot of glucagon." Dr. Whale explained. "Miss Swan, can you tell me what you ate today?"

I had to think about that for a moment. I didn't remember eating much that day, I know that I called in an order in to Granny's, but I never picked it up. "Ah, I had a bowl of cereal this morning…"

"Anything else?" he asked as he scribbled notes on the clipboard.

"Actually, Dr. Whale, she had about three bites of cereal before she pushed the bowl away and left for day." I looked at my mother; her recollection of my breakfast was true. I did only have a few of bites.

"And what about lunch?" Dr. Whale prompted. "Did you have lunch?"

At this point in time, much of the day was a blur, but I didn't remember eating anything for lunch. I gently shook my head.

"That's what I thought." He wrote a few more things down on my chart and turned to my parents. "It seems that Emma has had an episode of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Just a few bites of cereal were not enough to keep her blood sugar level up for the day and she passed out. We gave her a shot of glucagon, which was able to raise her sugar levels. As your blood sugar rises you will begin to feel well again. Have you ever been hypoglycemic before?" He directed the question back to me, I shook my head. "Is it often that you go an entire day without eating anything?" Again I shook my head and he jotted down the notes.

"Ok, I have ordered a tray for you from the cafeteria; I want you to eat all of the food when it arrives. In an hour we will check your levels again, if your sugar level is good then you can go. No more skipping meals. This is not something to mess with, Miss Swan. Although I am not going to require daily blood checks yet, I am going to order blood work on six month intervals to monitor your Hb1Ac. Take the remainder of the day to rest; you should be fine to resume normal activity that includes eating, tomorrow." I nodded, my mother thanked him.

Things were rapidly becoming more coherent. The fog in my head had lifted and energy was seeping back into my body. I was able to push myself up in my bed a little and finally rub my face. Although, I would have much rather had my grilled cheese from Granny's instead of the hospital food that was now going to have to choke down.

"Mom!" Henry came rushing through the hospital room door. He rushed to my side and put his arms around me the best that he could manage. I returned his hold the best that I could with the top half of his body lying across mine. My left arm was still attached to the IV so rested my chin on the top of his head and held him with my free hand.

I could see the panic in his eyes as he rushed in, "It's ok, Kid." I reassured him. "I just learned the hard way that I need to eat more than three bites of cheerios in a day."

Henry finally lift his body from mine and took up residence on the stool that Dr. Whale had abandon as Killian approached the other side of my bed. Killian leaned down to give me a quick kiss. I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him into one a little more seductive. After I let him pull away, I mouthed a quick thank you to him for getting Henry from school. He nodded with a smile, "how are you feeling, love?"

"Much better, now that you're here," I said as I shot him an alluring look followed by a wink. Of course, I cracked into a mischievous laugh when I heard my father groan. "Payback is a bitch, Father…" I teased without moving my eyes from Killian's face.

"That's not payback, that's fighting dirty," he pouted. I couldn't help but laugh. He looked like a little kid who was going to take his ball and go home because he didn't get his way.

"So who is this guy who brought in? Who called for help?" If I didn't know better, I would have said that Killian's question was laced with jealousy. But then I remembered, he had never met JC. In all of the times that JC was in Storybrooke it had only been immediate family who had the pleasure. He didn't know JC, Lily, or the horrible story.

"JC is my foster brother…and apparently…cousin." I blurted out.

Oh that one blindsided David and Mary Margaret too. "What?!" they both shouted at the same time. "Henry, go ask JC to come in here please." Henry jumped to David's command and exited the room. "How is that possible?" he asked as he turned back to me.

Killian, who was holding my hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, "Would you like me to take leave, love?" he asked.

I shook my head, "No, you need to hear this as much as they do." I waited for JC to enter followed by Henry before I began to tell the story of our conversation at the sheriff station.

Over the next twenty minutes, while I nibble on the delicious hospital food, JC told my family the same story that he told me at the station. To say that they were shocked would have been an understatement. He explained it all; James being his father, the magic bean, the task of him and I bringing together the brother's bond, and resetting one single event in time. The only problem was that his answers to our questions only led to more questions. Everyone sat in my hospital room silent. Eerily silent. It was Henry who finally broke that silence.

"What's going to happen to me?" He asked. His question was innocent. And I honestly had only one answer.

"Nothing…" The group gave me puzzled look. They all knew what the outcome of changing one single event in time would be. It would change everything as we knew it. And quite frankly, I screwed time up before, I wasn't about to do it again. "Nothing is going to happen to you Henry, because JC and I aren't going to do it."

"But how can you stop it? You don't even know what it is. You can say that you're not going to do it, but if you don't know what it is that you're supposed to do, how can you avoid accidentally doing it?" Henry made an excellent point. We couldn't avoid something when we didn't know what we had to avoid. The problem was that I didn't know how to find out either. JC knew what we supposed to do, but not how.

"I guess we just need to sit down and put together all of the clues that we have." I didn't know what else to say. I didn't have the answers, and oh God, I wish I did.

"And what event is it that you're supposed to reset?" That question was the first thing to come from my father's mouth since he sent Henry to fetch JC.

I looked at David like he had just spoken a foreign language and I didn't understand a word. I had never thought about the event itself. I was so determined that I wasn't going to do the job that I never took the time to think about the event. This one little task was huge. There were a million events that could have been reset and each individual little thing could change, no would change, the course of everything that we have known to be true in our lives.

The tension in the room was mounting so high that I was relieved when Dr. Whale entered the room. "I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?" he asked. He obviously felt the edginess as he moved further into the room. How could he miss it?

"No, you're fine, Doctor." Mary Margaret answered for all of us. "Can we take Emma home now?"

"Well, I am here to test her level now that she has eaten," he lifted my hand and rubbed an alcohol swab across the pad of my index finger before he gave a quick prick with a needle, "if her number is ok, then yes." It only took a couple of seconds for him to have his formal answer. "97…perfect. I will have the nurse bring in your discharge papers and instructions and you are free to go."

"Thank you," I said to him as he removed the IV that was stuck into the back of my hand. That stupid thing had been causing me discomfort all evening. But when he finally left, I looked to my parents for advice. "What do we do next?" I was truly concerned over this latest prophecy. I was literally afraid to make any move especially any move that included JC. With my luck, something as simple as a hug could have sent us all reeling back in time. For only being 14 years old, Henry gave me a lot of shit to think about. And shit was the only way that I could think to describe it.

"We call Regina to meet us at the loft and we go through everything that we know so far," my Dad offered and we all silently agreed. I doubted that Regina new anything more of the prophecy than we did, but she was knowledgeable in the ways of magic.

I let a small tear escape from my eye and roll down my cheek. My mother was the only one to notice and she quickly wiped it away with the pad of her thumb, "I'll go ask for your paper work, honey," she smiled.

I smiled back a thank you as I pushed myself up into a full sitting position. Because I was brought into the ER and wasn't admitted I was lucky to not have to put on one of those drafty hospital gowns. I looked around for my boots while the rest of the group followed my mother out of my room.

"You ok?" My father held my boots out in front of me. I thought that he had left as well, but I was thankful that he didn't. I nodded but it was lie and he knew it.

"I don't know what to do," I confessed. I was scared, but I was trying to hold a brave face, especially in front of Henry.

"We'll figure it out, together." He lifted my chin to force me to look at his face. "You are not alone in this, understand?"

I nodded. "Thanks, Dad." I gave him a slight smile then slipped on my boots. He reached for my hand to pull from the bed.

He took my face into the palms of his hands, "Together, okay?" I nodded and he placed a kiss on my forehead. "I love you, baby," he gave me the wink that he reserved only for me then offered his arm to escort me from the emergency room. Our work was just beginning.


	23. Chapter 23 - King George

**This was a tough chapter to write, and I am hoping that I have conveyed my meaning through the words. Just a warning, some may consider the end a little violent. As always, thank you to my loyal readers and reviewers. You guys are awesome! Anyway, let me know what you think. I tried to answer some of the questions that were asked in the reviews of the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy. Please Review. **

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Chapter 23 – King George

Several days had passed since JC's mind blowing, blood sugar dropping revelation. The one that said the he and I were the key to resetting some event in time. The problem being, we didn't know what event we were supposed to reset or how we were supposed to reset it. So, essentially, he and I being in the same room together was a potential ticking time bomb; a literal time bomb. So, we decided that it was best if JC and I stayed far apart from each other. And when I say far apart, I mean that he stayed in Augusta and I stayed in Storybrooke. When we did communicate with each other, it was only through my parents.

"Let's go over what we know again," Mary Margaret suggested. Over the past couple of days we recruited Belle and Regina to help figure out this mystery and we had been sitting in the library all day going through books of spells, curses, and even stories looking for any clue or piece of information that could point us in any direction. It didn't have to be the right direction; just any direction.

"Here, let's write it all down on this," Belle said as she pulled an easel from the nearby supply room behind the circulation desk at the library. The easel had a large blank paper note pad clipped to it and she held a handful of colorful markers. I rubbed my face and ran my fingers through my hair.

"I've already written it down," I raised my voice in disgust. I picked up my notebook and tossed it toward the group of people who were just as flustered as me. "I would read it to you, but I don't have to, I have it memorized. Gold created the dark curse and made me the savior because he wanted me to break the curse and help him find Neal, Pan wanted to stop me from breaking the curse because he knew that if I broke the curse he would ultimately be killed by Gold. JC is here because James gave his mother a magic bean so that they could flee from King George and the curse, Pan was using Lily and Mr. Cooper to keep tabs on me and kill me respectively to stop me from breaking the curse. JC and I are cousins, the eldest children of the twin boys who were never meant to know each and it is up us to bring that bond back together, but when we do, it will reset one event in time that will change the course of everything that we know. Did I miss anything?" I looked around the table and saw that nobody moved; actually most of them were looking away from me or at the floor. Either their brains were just as fried as mine or they were afraid of my reaction to, well, anything. "The only thing that I don't know is why the hell we haven't hauled King George's ass in here and interrogate him for a while? He has to know something."

Questioning King George had rapidly become a point of contention between my father and me. For some reason, that I hadn't figured out yet, every time that I suggested bringing him in, my father advised against it. I had broached the subject several times with David, only to be told to drop it or just ignored altogether. I was starting to think that my father was afraid of what he might have to say.

"You know what? I can't do this anymore, I need to get out and get some fresh air." I pushed my chair back from the table and pulled my red leather jacket over my arms. "I'll be home later," I said to my mother. As I tried to walk past she grabbed my wrist and slipped a granola bar into my hand. "I'm not hungry, we just had dinner," I rolled my eyes and I pushed the granola bar back in her direction.

"Please just take it with you?" she pleaded. He eyes were filled with over protective worry.

"Mom, how many times have you called Dr. Whale? And how many times does he need to tell you that I'm fine? It was combination of the stress, JC's story, and not eating all day." I knew that I was frustrated and acting like a whiny teenager. But for god's sake she was shoving food at me every two hours. I'll admit that my little black out episode was a bit worrying, but it was a condition that could affect any living human being when the conditions were right. I was overly stressed, JC had just dropped the bomb of the century on me, and I ate three bites of cheerios all day. So as Dr. Whale had explained to my mother, I don't know how many times, the conditions were right.

"Emma, take the damn granola bar." Ok, apparently I wasn't the only frustrated one. I pulled the bar from my mother's hand as soon as I heard my father's 'do as your told' voice boom with the order. I slipped it into my coat pocket and zipped the zipper to keep it from falling out. I smiled at them and left without saying another word.

I began to walk toward the harbor. I don't know what it was about the water but it always seemed to be my place for solace or deep thinking. I don't know if it was the sound of the seagulls, the water lapping up against the docks, or a combination but whatever it was, it always calmed me down. I walked around the pier for a short time before my legs betrayed my brain and turned me toward the more affluent neighborhood. Before I knew it, I was knocking on his door.

"Can I help you?" His voice was stern and gruff, like always, when he opened the door. It was obvious that he wasn't expecting me. He stood there in his satin pajamas, smoking jacket, and reeked of alcohol.

"Have a minute to chat with your granddaughter?" I asked him. I had never given in to his antics about our adoptive family relationship in the past, but I needed to get answers, and if you wanted to get technical he was my father's adoptive father making him my adoptive grandfather. And the only way to get answers from King George was to play the game his way. He opened the door wider and stepped aside to allow my entry into his home.

I followed him into the den. He moved behind a large oak desk and pointed to one of the velvet upholstered chairs positioned in front of the desk. The walls were cascaded with large oak shelves that were filled with books. Most likely, a majority of the books were law books. He was a lawyer, after all. Before he sat down on his black leather desk chair, he turned to the bar behind the desk and poured himself a drink. "Bourbon?" he offered to me.

"No, thank you. I'm on duty." I answered. "Nice place you have here," a little small talk to open up the channel of communication never hurt, right?

But he went straight to the thought that was on his mind, "Can I assume that your father doesn't know that you're here? I know how he feels about my presence near you." I watched him as he peered out the window that was to the left of his desk. I was about to lie to him and tell him that my father was aware of my location, but he beat me to the punch. "And, David doesn't seem to be pacing sidewalk waiting for the moment that he can break down my door to drag you out of here."

"My dad is aware that I am on patrol, with a set time to meet him. But, no, you don't need to worry about him busting down your door, at the moment. I'm here to talk to you. I have some questions that I think you can answer." Ok, so I reworded my lie.

He spun around in his chair to finally face me. His eyes looked so tired a little sad even. Maybe it was the alcohol, but I had never seen him so melancholy. In every encounter that I have ever had with this man, his arrogance always walked through the door before he did. So to see him in this state was a bit disconcerting, but just maybe it meant that I had a chance of him being cooperative. He didn't say anything, just stared forward. Not even at me, more like through me.

"Tell me about my uncle." I was a get to the point kind of person and I wasn't there to waste his time or mine.

He pulled his gaze to my face before he finally spoke. "Of all the questions I would have expected from you that one was not at the top of the list."

"Why is that?" I asked. It was clear that I piqued his interest. Now I just had to see what I could get out of him before I started to push my luck.

"I loved my son." He snapped back at me. Wow, his mood was jumping around like a rabbit on steroids. By the way our conversation had started, I wasn't expecting him to get defensive, but I'm sure that he was looking for the motive in my visit and drunk. I had seen drunk rage before, unfortunately.

"I didn't say that you didn't love him. But I want to know about him and sadly my father knows very little." I studied his face closely. I needed to determine just how much he was willing to divulge. His look remained stone cold for a minute, but then began to soften.

"He was a brave man, a little cocky, but I was proud of him. He was a ruthless ruler and arrogant. He was everything that I wanted in a Prince. He was the man that I wanted him to be. But he was also a little unruly at times. Every once in a while, I would see your grandmother come out in him; he would have a moment of caring for the commoners and I couldn't tolerate that."

Ok, I had to admit, King George really took me back a step when I heard the adjectives that he used to describe his son. They were the same adjectives that I had heard my father use to describe his brother, but not exactly ones that you expect to come from the mouth of a proud parent. But he was being honest with me. And I wasn't sure why. Then it hit me.

"You know why I'm here, don't you?" he slowly nodded to my question.

"I've seen you with him. I knew it was just a matter of time before you came knocking on my door; though I am surprised that you are alone." He spun around and poured himself another drink. I watched him wondering how many that he had already had this evening. "James was right to get that boy away from me. It was too bad that the mother wasn't smart enough to leave when James told her to."

"But she did leave, before the curse hit," I interjected.

"I don't know why she held on to that bean so long. I guess she was waiting for James to come save her, but as soon as she was out of site, he forgot about her and the boy. He didn't want to be a father and he didn't want me to know that he was a father. His motivations were purely selfish."

"I wonder where he got that from," I thought that I mumbled it low enough that he didn't hear me, but I was wrong.

"You're a blunt person, just like your father."

I gave him a smile at what I considered to be a compliment. "So you know about JC being in this realm. When did you finally make contact with him?"

"You're right, I knew about JC being in this realm. I hired people to find him just after you broke the curse and returned from the Enchanted Forest with your mother. But I also know about the prophecy, which is the real reason why you're here, is it not?"

I raised my eyebrow to him, "Perceptive." I nodded, "Yeah, I'm interested in what you know about the prophecy."

"Well, I'm afraid that I don't know much more than you do."

"Yeah, somehow I don't believe that." I needed to call his bluff. He needed to know that I wasn't going to back down and just accept his denial at face value.

"Now who's the perceptive one?" He took a long sip from his drink. "Rumplestiltskin told me of the prophecy before the dark curse hit. He told me that was the only way to get my James back. I had to let the mother and boy escape so that they boy could join the savior to reset time back to one event. After you and your mother returnee, he informed me that it was up to me to make sure that you two met . What I didn't know was that you two were going to meet long before you showed up to break the curse or that Cooper was going to try to kill you under Pan's orders. But when I found out that Cooper was your foster father, I arranged for his release from jail in return for getting you and JC to meet again."

"And that's when you gave him the medal to get into Storybrooke. Where did you get it?" I asked. I thought about the medal that has been on my nightstand since the day that David took Mr. Cooper to the town line.

"Gold gave it to me. Told me to hold onto to and when the time was right, I would know what to do with it."

"So what made you give it to Mr. Cooper?" To say that my head was spinning would have been the understatement of the year. With each passing day, no with each passing minute, this mystery became more complicated. Every answer led to more questions.

"Call it a hunch or a feeling. When I was finally able to meet with Cooper, I just felt like I needed to give him the medal." This part of the story was getting to be a little hard to swallow.

"So you're saying that you had no idea that this medal would be instrumental in getting Cooper into Storybrooke?" I gave him a skeptical glare. He just took another swig of his drink.

"Would you rather me make up some lie to feed to you? Gold told me that I would know what to do when the time was right; I guess that was the time. Magic is powerful, you know."

He had a point. I had no idea what kind of spell or curse Gold may have used to on the medal or King George. It was after the curse was broken and we all know that Gold was the one to bring magic to Storybrooke. At this point, I had to take him at his word; although I wasn't exactly buying it but I didn't have any proof to the contrary.

"Do you know anything else about this medal?" I asked. I could tell that I was quickly running out of time. But I pushed anyway.

He nodded, "It has a counterpart to it. Another piece, that when you put them together it has the ability to show you something that time has forgotten."

I had heard those words before, but I couldn't remember where. "What does the counterpart look like? Is it another medal?" I remembered that JC told me that he had purchased a medallion in Gold's shop. So my first thought was that maybe it was the medallion together with the medal that was going to be the trigger. And now, I had one object and he had the other.

"That I don't know, Gold never told me. He was always good at just telling you what you needed to know for that moment." I knew exactly what he meant. Gold never did anything for anyone that didn't benefit him in some way. So, how was Gold going to benefit from JC and me resetting an event in time? One thing that I did learn was that the event was mostly going to be something before I was born. How else would King George get back his son James? Unless, getting James back wasn't meant to be literal.

"So why are you telling me all of this? It's not like you to be so forthcoming…"

"I only ever wanted my family here in this world. That was David, JC, and you. It's been thirty years and I'm tired of waiting." He paused for a moment.

"Whoa, wait a minute? A family? You hated my father for what he and my mother did, and you expect me to believe that all you wanted was a family?" Talk about doing a complete 180.

"I let power, grief, and greed consume me. When you and your mother were stuck in the Enchanted Forest I thought that I had my chance for revenge. And David came out on top again. Then you were back, he had his family together and I was reminded, yet again, of what I was missing. But I had already ruined things between us. There was no way to get it back. That's when I went to Gold and he reminded me of the prophecy and how to get back James." He paused for a moment then emptied the drink into his mouth. "I think it's time for you to leave now."

I nodded and he escorted me to the door. "Thank you," I said to him. I was being sincere. I owed him that much. This conversation was unlike any other that I had with King George. And to be honest, I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This was the very definition of being out of character for him; almost to the point that if it wasn't for my superpower, I would have said that he was lying to me. But he wasn't.

"For what's it worth, Emma," I stopped and turned when he said my name. "I loved your father. David was just as much my son as James was, I was just too wrapped up in myself" I gave him a gentle smile with a nod before I turned and made my way down the sidewalk.

I was almost to the street when I heard the loud sound. So loud and out of place that I fell the ground to protect myself. But it was only a couple of seconds before I realized that the gun shot came from inside King George's house. I pulled out my phone and called for an ambulance as I ran back to the house. I knew exactly where to go once I was inside, I found him lying on the floor behind his oak desk, and the pistol was still in his hand. I gently wept for the man who had just confided in me that he had only wanted a family. He wanted his son, his grandson, and apparently his granddaughter in this world; his mistake was that he went about it all the wrong way. I sat down next to him and held his hand as I waited for the paramedics to arrive.


	24. Chapter 24 - The Counterpart

**As I draw closer to the end of this story, it seems like it takes longer for me to write a chapter. I want to make sure that, although I am an amateur writer, I want it to have some kind of quality and I don't want to put something out there that is forced. So please be patient with me. And a HUGE THANK YOU to all of my loyal readers and reviewers you guys are the BEST. You truly make it worth continuing. Enjoy the next installment and PLEASE REVIEW!**

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Chapter 24 - The Counterpart

He wasn't dead. I don't know how he was still alive but he definitely was not dead. I felt his chest rise and fall with each shallow breath as I put pressure on the wound waiting for the paramedics to perform their jobs. I followed them as they wheeled on their mobile gurney from the den to the back of the ambulance. I wasn't going to leave him alone.

"I'm sorry, sheriff," one of the paramedics said to me as I began to climb into the back of the ambulance with them. He put his hand up to block my entrance "If you feel the need, you may go to the hospital and wait there."

I pushed his hand out of my way and made my way to the front where I could be with King George but also out of the way of the paramedics. "I'm his granddaughter and I'll be damned if you not going to allow me to go with him." I had never before entertained the idea that he was my grandfather, but after our heart to heart conversation that we just had I wasn't going to deny him family, adoptive or not, and it was getting me what I wanted.

The paramedic conceded with a nod and closed the doors to begin their work and their transport. I listened to one of the guys call the arrival into the hospital so that they could be ready in the emergency room. I pulled my phone from my pocket and called my father. "Meet me at the hospital" was all that I said to him figuring that he would be out of the door before I hung up the phone.

The ride was quick and there was so much blood. I watched as the paramedics performed different procedures on King George, but there was no way in hell that I knew what any of it was or what they are trying to do, other than keep him alive. I was still amazed that he was breathing. His pulse was faint and his blood pressure was dropping but that was all that I was able to really understand.

They wheeled him directly into the emergency room when we arrived. I assumed they knew what needed to be done by what was called in from the road. I followed them as far into the hospital as I could until I was stopped by the attending nurse. "I'm sorry sheriff, but you need to wait here, we will update you as soon as possible."

I paced the emergency waiting room anxiously awaiting the arrival of my father. What was only a couple of minutes seemed like hours, "You…" I heard from behind. I turned around to see a doctor coming toward me with a clipboard in his hand. "You're Albert Spencer's daughter?" he questioned me. It took me a minute to realize who the doctor was talking about, since Albert Spencer was King George's cursed name.

"Ah…no…granddaughter…adoptive granddaughter actually." I explained trying not to get into too much detail. Of course, judging the by the doctor's blank expression, he really didn't care.

"Here sign this," the doctor shoved the clipboard in my direction.

"What is it?" I was quickly trying to read over the paper that the doctor was so adamant that I was going to sign, the last thing that I needed was to authorize something that I had no clue about or even had no business authorizing.

"He needs emergency surgery and we need a release signed by a family member," the doctor explained in a huff.

"Whoa…I don't think that I should," I pushed the clipboard back in the direction that it came.

"Why not?" the doctor's voice was stern. He lacked any kind of personality. It almost seemed like he was pissed because he had to do his job.

"Well it's complicated, but my father is on his way and…"

"We don't have time for that," the doctor snapped. He was cold and had no patience for me or who I might be expecting to arrive. "You're his granddaughter; sign the papers so that we can try to save this man's life."

I looked at the doctor with one last peeved hesitation before I scribbled my name across the line. My choices, as difficult as they were, was to let him die because I wouldn't sign a paper or hope that he would live by signing a paper that technically I probably wasn't supposed to sign. The doctor yanked the clip board with the signed release from my hands as he walked away without as much as a thank you.

I went back to pacing the waiting room floor. With each nervous step I wondered how on earth King George was still alive. I thought about the gun his hand. All that I could remember was that it was a handgun. But it must have been a low caliber for him to still be alive.

"Emma…" I turned and ran to my father who had just burst through the emergency room doors, followed by my mother. He wrapped his arms around me pulling me into a tight hug, "what's going on?" he asked.

"King George shot himself in the chest…I came in the ambulance. They made me sign a release, he's in surgery, I don't know what's going on…" I rambled the words out so fast that even I didn't know what I was saying.

"Emma, Emma….slow down." My father pulled out of the hug and led me to one of the chairs in the waiting room. "Sit down and breathe." He instructed.

After a couple of deep breaths, I finally had myself composed enough to tell my parents what had happened. "I went to see King George…"

"You did what?" my mother interrupted loudly; loudly enough to gain the attention of all the people in the waiting room. When she saw the looks that she received she repeated herself in a softer voice, "you did what?"

"Emma, what were you thinking? Going to see him alone?" my father asked.

"I was thinking that I needed answers," I explained in a raise voice. "Answers that I thought that he had and every time that I suggested bringing him in, you were against it. So I went to see him." I had to defend my decision. Ultimately it did get me answers, maybe not all the answers that I had hoped for, but answers nonetheless.

I felt like a little kid who was just caught disobeying her parents and was sitting in the hot seat just waiting for the yelling that was about to commence. They both sat there quietly for a long moment. If I had to guess, they were both counting to ten in an attempt to calm themselves before speaking again. Finally, my father broke the silence, "and what did you find out?"

I quickly looked each of them over to try to read their expressions. My father sat there straight faced waiting for me to tell them the story. My mother, on the other hand, had her arms folded across her chest and she was biting her lower lip. I took a deep breath, "When I got there he was drunk…"

"Are you kidding me?" My mother loudly interrupted again, "he could have killed you."

My jaw dropped, I didn't know how to respond, I stuttered a bit before my father interjected, "Mary Margaret, let's just let her tell us the story, ok?"

My mother nodded, "I'm sorry, Emma, continue."

"Are you sure?" I asked sarcastically. She rolled her eyes at me but nodded in affirmation. "No more interruptions?" This time she raised her eyebrows in a look that told me that I was pushing it so I started talking. I told them everything that King George and I had talked about. From him knowing about JC to the prophecy that Rumplestiltskin had told him would bring back his son James. I even told them that the only thing that King George wanted in his realm was his family. That he knew that he couldn't have James, but he could have David, JC, and myself.

"And you believed him?" My mother's question was sardonic.

"He was drunk," I defended. "Yeah, I believed him. He was so drunk that he wasn't thinking about what he was saying; he was speaking from his feelings." I looked to my father, "he told me that you were just as much as his son as James and that he loved you."

My father put his head down for a beat then looked up into my eyes, "Emma, he didn't love me, he loved James. He wanted me to be James. He only ever saw me as my brother."

"I don't believe that. He told me that he was too consumed by greed and power that he ruined things between you and him. He seemed genuinely sorry for what he did to you. So he thought the only way to get a family was to get James back which meant getting me and JC together to reset this event in time."

"Emma, I appreciate that you want to see some good in him, but believe me, there is none," my glare to my father's statement was enough to end the conversation.

My parents sat in an eerie silence. I decided to give them some space and time to digest what I had just told them. The family part was mind blowing enough so I decided to not fill them in right away on the medal, which he gave Mr. Cooper, having a counterpart that when put together 'remembered something that time forgot.' I walked to the nurse's station to get an update on King George. "Can I help you?" the nurse asked.

"Um, yeah, I was hoping to get an update on Albert Spencer?" I saw the look in her eye that said she didn't want to give me any information. "I'm family," I explained.

She gave me a skeptical look, she really didn't want to say anything, but she finally relented somewhat, "I cannot give you any details yet, all that I can tell you is that it is going to be a long surgery. I recommend that you go home and we will call you as soon as we can give you an update."

I looked at the clock it was almost 1:00 AM. I pinch the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger, clearly frustrated with the nurse's answer. But I understood her position. I wrote my name and number down on a post-it note. "Call me when he is out of surgery."

"Yes, ma'am," the nurse took the post it and placed it King George's file.

I walked up behind my parents who were having a silent conversation, "can you two give this telepathy thing a rest for one day?" I asked. My tiredness was starting allow my crankiness to take over, "Come on; let's go home, they are going to call when there is an update on his condition."

The car ride home was silent. As we sat in the cab of my father's pickup truck, my mother in the middle between David and me, I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. I felt my mother lift my hand into hers, and whispered something to my father about me being overly stressed and this situation taking too much of a toll on me. I didn't bother to acknowledge that I heard her talking to him. Because, frankly she was right; and although I didn't want them to worry about me, I reveled in the fact that I finally had parents to worry about me; even when they were driving me crazy with their overprotective tendencies.

The climb up the stairs to the loft was exhausting, but for some reason I was still too wired to sleep. I went directly to the stove to make some hot chocolate. "Anyone else want a cup?" I offered. I looked up to see my parents having another one of their silent conversations followed by my mother giving my father a good night kiss before she answered me.

"No, thank you, sweetheart. She looked to my father; I'm going to let Belle know that we're home." My mother exited the room toward her bedroom. I looked to my father for an explanation.

"Belle came over to stay with Neal when you called. We told her to just spend the night. We'll take your bed and you can take Henry's." I nodded in compliance as I put the finishing touches on my hot chocolate and sat down at the island to drink it and unwind a little. My father came up behind me, he placed his hands on my shoulders and gently squeezed them trying to massage out some of the tension. "So you want to tell me what is going through that beautiful head of your's?"

I closed my eyes and basked in the wonderful feeling of my dad rubbing my shoulders. "He was being sincere," I finally said.

"Emma, I know that you want to believe that, but nothing that man has ever said or done has been sincere."

"But Dad, this was different." I didn't really know how to explain it. The only thing that I did know was that I was not ready to admit what are really bothering me to him.

He released my shoulders and walked around the island and poured himself a cup of hot chocolate. "Different how?"

"He was admitting that he went about things the wrong way in this realm. He was trying to make amends." I held my mug between my palms using the heat from the drink to warm my hands. I studied the whipped cream as it melted down into the chocolaty liquid, determined not to make eye contact with my father.

"Ah, I see," he responded as he dropped a dash on cinnamon on his own cup of hot chocolate. "You want to tell me what is really weighing on your mind now?" I quickly looked up at him with a look that showed nothing but shock. I heard him chuckle, "I am you're father you know, I think that I know you a little better than you realize."

I sighed when I realized that I wasn't going to pull one over on him. I didn't want to relent, but just maybe talking about it would make me feel a little better. After all, Dad's were supposed to make things better, right? After another beat of silence and him patiently waiting, I finally spoke the feelings that were haunting me, "I'm scared."

This was the first time that I have ever put my walls down enough to confide in him about any doubt that I was feeling. I only ever showed him my strong side. I lifted my eyes in his direction so that I could see his reaction to my confession. What I saw was a man's love for his daughter, "I would be worried if you weren't," he answered.

My eyes widened, "Really?"

"Come here," he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the couch to sit next to him. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. He lifted his hand to my head and gently pushed it down to rest on his shoulder. "Ok, now, tell me everything that is bothering you." I was surprised by his words. I was expecting him to start give some kind of pep talk about how I don't always have to be strong. But instead, he wanted me to do the talking. So I did.

"Do you remember, last year, when I fell into Zelena's time portal?" I felt him nod and hum a little mmhmm, "I messed up the timeline for you and Mom and I had to fix it. I nearly wiped myself from existence. Granted being able to watch my parents meet and fall in love was a surreal experience that I wouldn't give up for anything. But still, going back in time was nearly devastating. I'm afraid that if this event reset happens, I'm going to lose everything. Nothing good can come from this. And the worst part about it is the not knowing what it is or how JC and I are supposed to do it. I can't you lose you and mom. I can't lose Henry. I feel like I'm not in control and that is scaring the shit of out me. I need to be in control, dad."

My head rose and fell with his chest as he took a deep breath. He let the breath out slowly before he spoke the words that I wasn't expecting, "I think that it's time that we find Gold. We need to find out what he knows."

"Whatever it is, I don't want to do it," I had already made my decision.

"I know, baby. And here's what we'll do, once we get a status update tomorrow on King George, we'll make plans, you and I, to go to Augusta and get Gold. We need to take this one step at a time and the first step is Gold."

"Do you think that he'll give us the answers that we need?" I couldn't help the skepticism that plagued my voice.

"No, I don't. But if nothing else, he'll say something that we'll have to interpret that will point us in the next direction. He always does." My dad had a point, Gold like to play games and talk in riddles. He never told you the answer straight out, but it was usually in his words somewhere, you just had to find it.

"Thanks, Dad." I lifted my head to smile up at him.

"For what?"

"For chasing away the monster under the bed; at least for a little while." I answered.

"Anytime, honey. Now, what do you say that we go to bed? Morning comes early, and the hospital will be calling." I nodded my head in agreement. As I stood from the couch I reached my hand out to my father to pull him up from the cushions. But instead of me pulling him up, he pulled me to him as he stood. He held me for a moment. And I have to say that it was one of the best moments of my life. I could not describe any better of a feeling than to have my dad wrap his arms around me and just make me feel safe, loved, and like I wasn't alone. It always made me wonder how I lived without it for 28 years.

When he finally let me go, I watched him reach over to the end table to turn off the lamp. "The swan," I said when the crystal figurine that I bought my mother for her birthday caught my attention.

"What?" he asked.

"The swan, remember when we bought it, Belle said that when it was matched with its medal it had the power to remember what time forgot?"

He had a confused look on his face, "yeah, what about it. She didn't have the medal."

"No, but King George did, that was the medal that he gave to Mr. Cooper to get him into Storybrooke. King George told me the same thing about the medal tonight. I knew that I had heard that prophecy before, but I couldn't remember from where."

"We left the medal at the station; Cooper put it on the table in the interrogation room." I shook my head to David's comment.

"I picked it up and slipped it in my pocket. It's upstairs on my night stand." I hurried up the stairs to retrieve the medal. I can't believe that I didn't realize it before. I had heard the same riddle for both items and I never put it together. Once I had the medal in my hand, I ran back to my father, who was holding the swan in his hands. There was an indentation on the back of the swan, between the swan's wings. The indentation was the perfect shape and size to fit the medal perfectly. I held the medal over the indentation; I was ready to drop it down when my father pushed my hand away. "Emma, no."

I looked up at him clearly confused. His expression was one of worry. I dropped my hand to my side as he continued, "we have been told that these two things together will show us something that time has forgotten, what if it is the reset trigger as well."

I hadn't thought of that, but I was thinking it now. "JC isn't here, though, we have to do it together."

"But you need to remember that magic isn't always what it seems." He put the swan back on the table. "Give me the medal, I'm going to put it somewhere far away from the swan, ok?"

"Okay," I drew out the word but handed the medal to my father.

"Well tackle this problem in the morning, when we've had time to sleep and get refreshed. We do not want to do anything without thinking it through rationally, ok?" I nodded. He had a point; we needed to get all the information that we could before we did something that we couldn't stop. He leaned in to give me a kiss on my forehead, "go to bed, honey."

"Goodnight, Dad," I said behind him as I watched him retreat to his bedroom. I followed him and climbed the stairs to my room to lie down. It was going to be a long night, I could only hope that exhaustion would take over and I would fall asleep. But with all of the thoughts that were now racing through my mind, sleep was very unlikely.


	25. Chapter 25 - Break Away

**Here is a bit of a fluff chapter before we venture into the final chapters of this story. Probably only about 2 or 3 chapters left. It is getting increasingly harder to write. It is probably going to be a little bit before I get the next chapter posted as I figure out how to bring it all together for the ending. Any way, I hope you enjoy this little fluff piece. Thank you to all of my loyal readers who have stuck with me on this story. Thank you for all of your likes, favorites, follows, and reviews. It truly means so much to me. Anyway, please read and review. I love reading them. Enjoy! Oh, and I'm not a doctor...just making it up as I go along.  
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Chapter 25 - Break Away

I tossed and turned all night. I would like to say that I had gotten at least one hour of sleep but that would have been a lie. As I flopped from one side to the other, I couldn't get my brain to shut off. The night's events kept replaying in my mind. A couple of times I crawled out of bed and made my rounds through the loft checking in on my little brother and my parents. At one point, Neal was awake and just lying in his crib babbling. I picked him up and held him close planting a small kiss on his forehead. He felt so comfortable in my arms. I leaned against one of the support beams listening to him suck on his fingers while I watched my parents sleep. They looked so peaceful and content. I thought of all the times that I stood and watched Henry sleep. My little boy, not so little anymore; though the thought made me smile. I smiled because as I watched them sleep, I knew (because it is what parents do) that they had watched me sleep on so many occasions thinking the same thing 'our little girl, not so little anymore;' although they probably wouldn't admit it to me in the fear that I would push them away for it. And there was a time in the not so distant past that I would have done just that.

I looked down at my little brother when he let go of a happy little squeak. "Yeah, we are pretty lucky, kid," I said to him as if I was agreeing with a comment that he just said. "We have pretty good parents, who love us. That's the most important thing. You know that? They love us so much and would do absolutely anything for us." He gave me a smile and a small baby laugh like he was holding a true conversation with me as I continued to talk to him. "I don't know why it took me so long to see it. Just stubborn, I guess. We get that from Mom, by the way; and our tact from Dad." I know that most people would argue that he was too young to know what his personality would be like, but I was convinced that those traits were hardwired into the Charming family DNA.

I gave him one more gentle kiss before I laid him back down to sleep in his crib. He was still somewhat awake but he didn't protest. I wound up the sheep mobile that hung above his bed and I slowly tiptoed away from him as he watched the sheep spin around slowly. Being a big sister was something that I never thought that I would be, but here I was and I loved every minute of it.

It seemed like it took forever for morning to arrive. Just when I thought that I was going to fall asleep, I heard the vibration of my phone on my night stand. I reached for it, thinking that it was a text, but it was a phone call from the hospital. "Hello," I answered.

"Sheriff Swan, this is Nurse Stein, from the hospital, there was a note in Albert Spencer's file to call you when there was an update available." The lady didn't to seem too happy to be calling me; I'm not sure if it had something to do with the time of morning or if she just hated her job.

"Yeah…yes. How is he?" My words were full of hope that she would have some good news for me.

"He is out of surgery, but the Doctor has requested that the family be called in," the tone in her voice made it sound like something was very wrong, but she wasn't going to tell me over the phone.

"We'll be right there," I didn't give her a chance to respond before I hung the phone. I quickly got dressed and went to retrieve my father. It was early; the loft was quiet which meant that my parents were still fast asleep. I slowly crept to my father's side of the bed, careful not to wake Neal on my way passed his crib. I laid my hand on David's shoulder gently shaking him awake. "Dad…" I whispered.

He opened his eyes and look at me with worry. As a parent, I could understand why, a child didn't typically wake a parent unless something was wrong or they needed something right away. "What's wrong?"

"Shh…" I put my finger to my lips then pointed to my mother. "Don't wake Mom and Neal. The hospital called, they need us to come in right away. He's out of surgery and the Doctor wants to talk to us."

He looked me up and down to see that I was ready to go then threw his head in the direction of the kitchen "Go write a note for Mom while I get dressed."

I quickly did as he asked and we hurried out of the apartment to the hospital. The drive to the hospital did not take long and as soon as we arrived we were greeted by Dr. Whale who escorted us into his office where were met by the attending surgeon. "Emma, David…this is Doctor Rubens, he was the lead surgeon on Mr. Spencer's case."

David offered his hand to the older gentleman who held an open chart in his hands. The gray haired man simply peered at us over his glasses before he turned his glare to Dr. Whale, "they are the adoptive son and granddaughter of Mr. Spencer," Whale explained.

"Please have a seat," the older doctor finally offered. He didn't wait for us to sit down before he started talking. "Mr. Spencer, your father…"

"Ah…Nolan" David interrupted, "it's David Nolan" David's voice trailed off in the pronunciation of his last name when the look on the doctor's face showed that he really didn't care for the particulars. My father glanced over to me for support; I just shrugged my shoulders.

"You're adoptive father," and the man stressed the word adoptive for David's appeasement I assumed, "was rushed into emergency surgery for a self inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He did survive the surgery, but the next twenty four hours are going to be crucial. Currently we have him on a ventilator and we are monitoring his brain activity. At this time he is not showing any brain activity on the EEG."

"What does that mean?" I asked the doctor for some clarification.

"It means that if there is no brain activity then he is clinically dead, being kept alive by the machines. Which brings me to my next point; Mr. Spencer does not have a DNR on file with this hospital…"

"DNR?" David questioned and I quickly answered him "Do not resuscitate." My father reached over and grabbed my hand. I could feel his tension and the breath that he was holding; he surely knew where the doctor was going with this conversation.

"That is correct, without the DNR on file it is up to the family to decide if you want to keep him on the ventilator or remove the machines. Keeping him on the machines would keep him alive for as long as you choose to pay for the machines or until his body gives up the fight naturally. Taking him off of the ventilator, without any brain activity, he would most likely die within minutes. Unless a miracle happens and his brain regains activity and he starts breathing on his own again. But the odds of that miracle happening are very low."

"Nice way to be compassionate there, Doctor." I understand that it is a doctor's job to deliver the good news or the bad to the family, but his bedside manner or lack thereof just sucked. "You do realize that you just called my father in here to tell him he has to make a decision on whether this man lives or dies. With it being perfectly clear that your opinion is that death is imminent regardless of the decision that is made. And let's not forget that money is a strong factor, since you had to throw that out there."

"Emma…" I felt my father grip my arm.

"No, Dad…this should not be about money or anything else but what is good for King George. If that were you lying in there I wouldn't be able to make that decision."

"Emma this is a completely different situation."

"Is it? How much do you remember of your real father? Huh? How much do you remember of King George being your father? This is not fair to you or to him." I couldn't sit there any longer and listen to this doctor's smug attitude of either pay the hospital or let him die. I stormed out of the office straight to the car.

"Emma…stop!" I heard my father call. I did, but I didn't turn around. Instead I hoisted my arms to the roof of the car and crossed them before laying my forehead on my arms effectively hiding my face. "What is this all about?"

I didn't answer him. I just continued to hide my face, "Emma? What is going on here? This certainly cannot be about a man who claimed to be my father just so that he could save his precious money. So please tell me what is going on here."

I turned around releasing a loud grunt, "Urrrgh…I'm just so frustrated with this whole damn situation. I get it; you have no loyalty toward that man. He was never really your father; he was James' father. But here we are, the only family that he has and this smug ass doctor is more worried about how much money it's going to cost to leave him on a ventilator."

"Emma, I don't know where this new found compassion that you have for King George is coming from, he obviously said or did something to win you over. But we have to look at this reasonably. We have a decision to make and we need to get all of the facts and statistics to make it responsibly. This is not something that I am going to take lightly just because I have no love for this man. And I agree, Dr. Rubens does not seem to be the most pleasant doctor…"

"More like he has a God complex," I mumbled below my breath while I moved my stare to the side away from my father's face.

"Well, that's one way to put it," he said with a crooked nod, "but we are where we are. And we have to deal with it."

"Not without JC," I know that in all of this, JC was the furthest thing from his mind, mine too if I were being honest. But JC was more of his family than we were, "JC is James' son, and we can't keep him out of this decision. He may not have known King George, but he is still his grandson."

"Agreed," my father smiled at me and gave me his loving wink, "now, you heard what the doctor said, the next 24 hours is crucial and they are going to monitor him. That gives us one full day to drive to Augusta to confront Gold and fill JC in on what is happening. We'll let JC make the decision if he wants to come to Storybrooke to see King George. Ok?"

I nodded. He opened the car door for me and I slid into the passenger side. "Call your Mom, let her know that we are going on that road trip to Augusta, we'll be back late tonight. I'm going to go back inside and inform the doctors of our current decision. Alright?"

I nodded to him again as I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit my mother's speed dial number. I explained to her everything that had transpired within the last hour and what our plan was going to be for the day. I could hear the worry in her voice when I mentioned that we were going to see Gold and JC, but it was something that had to be done. I especially knew that she wasn't happy with our plan when she asked to speak with my father and insisted on waiting on the phone until he returned to the car.

"Here…" I said holding out the phone toward my father when he got into the driver's side of the car, "Mom wants to talk to you."

He clipped his seat belt then took the phone from my hand. I didn't miss the playful eye roll that he shot my direction, "Yes, dear…" he said when he put the phone to his ear. I couldn't help the little giggle that escaped my lips. It was cute, she wasn't happy and he was going to get an earful about it. Although I could only hear his end of the conversation, which mind you wasn't much more than a 'yes, honey' and an 'I will' here and there, I could imagine what she was saying. And it most likely had something to do with making sure that I was careful and didn't get hurt in any way.

For the first forty five minutes of the trip we sat in relative silence. The only sounds were those that were coming from the radio, a general pop station. As my father drove closer to Augusta, I sat on the passenger side and stared out the window watching the scenery go by. Although I was not consciously listening to the song that was playing, subconsciously it triggered memories of my childhood. When my mind put those memories together with the present circumstances of me sitting next to my biological father on a road trip to Augusta, I couldn't stop the small escape of a few tears that ran down my cheeks. I kept my glare on the scenery. But my brain betrayed me when I suddenly found myself rambling and in turn giving my father a glimpse of my past.

"Isn't it amazing how just one single event in time can change your life forever? How everything that you know to be right side up can be turned upside down in an instant? You know, when I was little, I used to dream of this. I would sit and stare out my window. I would think about you and mom. I would think of myself and try to figure out what traits I got from you and what I got from her. I would wonder who I looked like. I used to sit and wonder if I would ever find you and if I would ever be happy. I would constantly dream of what could be. Foster home after foster home, I tried so hard to fit in and belong, but it never felt right. I cried myself to sleep so many nights, praying that you would come to find me and take me home. I decided early in my life that I needed to find you. I was probably about 11 years old when I decided that I needed to make a change and I became determined to break away from my life and do whatever I needed to do to get to you. I promised myself that I would do whatever it took. I never dreamed that it would take 28 years and a son that I gave up for adoption. So many times I came so close to losing faith in myself and my mission. When Henry came to find me, I was bound and determined that I was just going to bring him back home to Regina and drive right back to Boston that night. My life was consumed with finding you and I had it in my head that I had to be in the big city where I had the resources to do it. When he told me his theory of who my parents were, I didn't believe him. I thought that he was just a crazy kid with a wild dream of what could be; and boy, did I understand that feeling more than I ever wanted to admit. He reminded me of the promise that I made to myself. That I would do whatever I needed to do and I realized that I needed to take chance and take the risk of staying in Storybrooke. Only that chance and that risk wasn't for me or what I wanted, it was for Henry. I guess deep down, I wanted his story to be true. I wanted to believe him right off the bat. I had that internal struggle with the adult me who was convinced that I needed to be logical about everything and the kid in me that absolutely loved the idea of Snow White and Prince Charming being my parents. One little decision to go right instead of left can change the course of everything. And to just think about the fact that so many important decisions in life are made on the hopes and wishes of what could be; it's just so overwhelming…and terrifying at the same time."

I felt my father reach over and take my hand into his when I finally stopped talking. He didn't need to say anything, because his sheer presence was enough for me. For a long time he just held my hand as he drove, before finally speaking, "We'll figure it out together. Don't ever lose faith in yourself. Together we'll figure out what can be and we'll make it happen. You are not alone anymore."

I finally pulled my stare away from the passing scenery and looked to my father. I finally had the answers to some of the questions that I had wondered about when I was a kid; I had my father's hair and my mother's chin. I had my father's tact and my mother's stubborn streak. I had my father's smile and my mother's eyes. I had the happiness of being with my parents that I had always longed for. I gave him probably the biggest smile I have ever honored him with, "Thanks, Dad."


	26. Chapter 26 -The Truth Shall Set You Free

**I apologize for the long wait. I had a lot of figuring and rewriting on this one. I tried to answer all of the questions that I could think to answer to sum things up, but I'm sure that you as readers will have more. Let me know what they are so that I can write the answers in the next chapter or chapters; I try to answer the asked questions in the next chapter, because as readers with different points of view you think about things that I may not think about and it is such a help to making a complete story. You're questions help more than you may know. I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be, the story is coming to a close, but I am trying hard to not leave any loose ends. As always, thank you to my loyal readers and reviewers, you guys are great. Please forgive any typos, I wanted to get this up, so I will have to proof and correct it later.  
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Chapter 26 – The truth shall set you free

"Well, well, well…look who came back for a visit." Gold looked up from his desk with an impish grin on his face. He threw a pen on his desk as he leaned back in his chair and propped his elbows on the arms of the chair pressing his fingers of each hand together in a triangle that made it look as if he were praying. "At least it's not in the middle of an all night grocery at four in the morning this time," he added.

"What?" David looked over to me wanting an explanation to that comment.

I tilted my head away from my father trying to hide my wince. I had conveniently omitted that little detail when I told my parents of my last trip to Augusta. "Nothing…" was my only response, to David. I quickly turned the attention back to Mr. Gold, "We need to talk."

"We…don't need to talk about anything; I believe I told you everything that night in the potato chip aisle." The way he said the words 'potato chip' was very chastising especially since he looked to my father when he said it and not to me. Almost like I was a teenager and he was trying to get me into trouble with my parents.

"You didn't tell me anything that night," I raised my voice in defense. "Other than to look to my family…"

"And did you?" the imp interrupted.

"My family is just as perplexed about this as I am." Gold was quickly working my last nerve. Why couldn't this man ever talk in straight forward sentences? Everything always had to be a riddle or he would just talk in circles. I swear that a person could have a twenty minute conversation with the man then walk out knowing less than when the conversation started.

"Really? And what about your dear cousin, JC is it?"

"What about him?" My voice was cold and monotone. I wasn't surprised that Gold knew about JC, since it was he who orchestrated the entire curse. But judging by Mr. Gold's tone, I had to wonder if JC knew more about all of this than he was telling.

"That's enough…" My father cut in as he moved closer to the desk that hid most of Gold's body. "JC doesn't know any more about this than we do." I watched as my father reached his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled something out. He quickly slammed the palm of his hand down on the desk in front of the older man, releasing the object. "What can you tell me about this?" I recognized the object right away. It was the medallion that Mr. Cooper was given by King George to get into Storybrooke; the very medal that was the counterpart to the crystal swan that I had given to my mother.

"Ah Charming, I see that you've had a little chat with your father," Mr. Gold wore a sly smile on his face. He knew that he was getting under my father's skin and no doubt that was his plan.

"My father is dead and if you don't start answering some questions, you will be soon, too." Yeah, David wasn't bothering to hide his frustration.

"And why should I answer your questions, David?" This time, it was my turn to interrupt to keep things on track and stop the antagonizing that Gold was so easily accomplishing.

"Because we're going to make a deal," and that caught his attention. He cocked his head and looked at me with skepticism. I could tell that his interest was piqued; he enjoyed making deals and bargaining especially when it benefited him more than the other wagering party. But I also knew that he was going to try to play it cool.

"Oh really, Dearie? What makes you think that you have anything that I want?" And there it was, I let go of a little laugh, I probably even could have predicted his wording. He didn't have magic outside of Storybrooke, so that made him vulnerable. Over the centuries he had learned to rely on the use of magic. I knew what his weakness would be. For him magic was like a drug that he couldn't get enough of and he had be detoxing for months now.

"Oh I don't think, I know." I push my lips into a thin line as I glared at him. We both knew that I had the upper hand. "So, here's what is going to happen. You are going to answer all of our questions truthfully…no riddles…no talking in circles. Straight forward answers."

"And what do I get in return? A mug that says, 'I've been saved by the savior'?" His sarcasm or attempt thereof, was laughable.

"Cute…It's simple, you have what we want…answers. And we have what you want…a way back into Storybrooke." I watched him intently as he pushed his chair back from his desk and spun around so that his back was toward us and he was looking out of the window that was behind his desk. He was silent for a long beat. My father, who had finally taken a seat in the chair next to me, looked over to me before he reached for my hand, gently squeezing it in his.

"What do you want to know?" Gold finally asked, though he still did not turn around to face us. I squeezed my father's hand in return and smiled knowing that we had won that battle.

"Tell us about that medal. What does it do? And what does it have to do with Emma and JC resetting an event in time that will change things as we know it." My father breathed out a breath that seemed to be labored.

"Is that what you think?" It was then that he turned around and stared at us with a look that could only be described as disbelief. I had to admit, that his reaction had really taken me by surprise. "Where did you get that preposterous idea?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Was he really sitting there telling me that everything that I had learned up to now was incorrect? I looked over to my father who was just as confused as me, before I turned back to Gold. "Mr. Cooper, he was working for Pan. He was supposed to kill me so that JC and I couldn't reset the event in time. You wanted me to break the curse and Pan didn't because ultimately he knew that breaking the curse meant death for him." I had rattled that off as if it was all a question. Because truthfully; in a blink of eye, it had turned into a question rather than a fact.

The older man rose from his chair and crossed the room toward a book shelf. He pulled one thick book from the shelf and hobbled my direction to throw the book into my lap. The words 'English Dictionary' were scrolled across the spine of the hard bound book. I don't think that the look on my face could have gotten any more sardonic if I tried. "Again, I ask," he started while he moved back behind his desk. "Where did you learn of this mission that you and JC were tasked to complete?"

"From Mr. Cooper," I answered. I thought that I had made that obvious, but I guess not.

"King George confirmed Cooper's story…" my father interjected, almost as if he was finally catching up to the conversation. I looked over to him; he looked uncomfortable in his chair.

"Dad? Are you ok?" He was squirming in his chair, while reaching a fist up pound lightly on his own chest.

"Heart palpitations…" Gold offered with no sympathy whatsoever. "He'll be fine."

"Oh, and you're a doctor now?" I threw the dictionary to the floor and I got up to move closer to my father; concern for my father was building up in my chest. "Dad?"

My father smiled at me, "He's right, heart palpitations."

"What the hell? You have no idea that he is right, come on we're taking you to a hospital." I reached my hand around my father's arm to guide him up from the chair.

"Sit down, Miss Swan." Oh no, this imp was not going to tell me what to do for my own father.

"No, I'm taking him to the hospital. He needs help." I began to argue but Gold cut me off.

"All he needs is for your mother to stay in one place. Text your mother and tell her to go back to the loft."

I was about to let loose on the older man, when my father grabbed my wrist, "do has he says text your mother. I can't go to the hospital, not here. They won't understand."

"Won't understand? Won't understand what Dad?" The concerned question came out of my mouth but it was followed by an instant realization. My father only had half of a heart; half of my mother's heart. I quickly pulled out my phone and sent her the text.

"As long as your mother is alive and in Storybrooke, Miss Swan, your father will be fine. She has to stay where there is magic, but as she moves around the town and goes closer to the border of the town your father will begin to feel the discomfort while he is out of confines of Storybrooke. He won't die unless she leaves town. At all times one of them must stay within the borders of the town, where there is magic. If they both leave the town at the same time…"

"They will both die…" I finished. Now I understood. I hadn't even thought about my father's heart when we left for Augusta. I could have unknowingly killed my father. I quickly followed up my panicked text to my mother with a more calm explanation. In her response, she confirmed that she was going back to the loft. She had simply gone for a hike in the woods. But since I had just scared the shit of her, she promised that while we were gone she would stay near the center of town. It was amazing to watch my father's symptoms subside as my mother moved closer to the center of Storybrooke. "I guess we'll always know where to find Mom…that makes the whole family mantra a little more manageable," I mumbled more to myself than to my father or Gold. "Now back to you and the medal" I said turning back to Mr. Gold, "and what's with the dictionary?"

"That, my dear, is for you to look up the word reset." Oh so now he was patronizing me.

"I know what the word reset means," I picked the book up from the floor and tossed it onto the top of the desk.

"No, I don't think that you do," he pushed the book back in my direction. I looked over to my father who nodded silently telling me to do as the older man was instructing. I reluctantly reached for the book and pulled it back in to my lap. It didn't take me long to find the word among the pages. "Read the definition aloud, Miss Swan."

I rolled my eyes, but did as he said, "to move something back to an original place or position." I looked up at him to try to gauge his reaction. "Ok. So what? I already knew that."

"Does that definition say anything about changing anything?" he asked still obviously patronizing me.

"The prophecy said that the event reset would change everything as we know it to be." I tried to defend myself, but he just laughed at me. I looked to my father who was now holding my hand a little tighter. It was his way of giving me support to continue without snapping Gold's neck.

"Inference, Dearie, inference."

"Inference?" My father's loud tone startled me. "Are you saying that the prophecy was misinterpreted?"

"What I am saying," the man began to explain, "is that people drew the conclusion that resetting an event in time would change everything. And that was true."

"But you just said…"

"It would do you a bit of good to keep quiet and listen, Miss Swan." I closed my eyes and gave him a frustrated smile that made it obvious that I was biting my tongue, willing him to continue. "It is true that resetting an event in time has the ability to change events as we know them. But resetting the event was just as the definition states, putting something back to original position. You reset the event to its original place; it was up to the people involved in the event to make the same decisions or different ones. Different decisions from the original ones would have changed the outcome as we know it."

"Whoa…hold on a minute here. Back up…" I closed my eyes and clenched my fists as I tried to wrap my brain around the words that just came out of the imp's mouth. "Did you just say we already reset the event?" I couldn't believe it, when the hell did JC and I reset this event and why didn't we know that we did it? "You're talking in circles again" I hollered at the man, as I got up and began to pace the room.

"I most certainly am not, talking in circles, as you say. Did you not take the time to process the words of the prophecy? You and JC were meant to bring back the bond of the twin brothers, since each of you were their eldest child. When you brought back that bond, the event would be reset."

I let out a breath that I didn't even know that I was holding when the realization hit me, "we did it as kids. We were foster siblings, but we became so close, he took all of the beatings for me, he protected me. Essentially, he became my brother…and we brought back the bond."

"How? We were not in Storybrooke and there was definitely no magic in this land," I asked. My mind was reeling, none of this was making any sense to me.

"You are very powerful, Miss Swan. You are the only person that I know who had magic in this land before I brought it to Storybrooke."

"I did not, that is definitely something that I would have noticed growing up," if the man hadn't proven himself to be correct about things on so many occasions I would have argued that he was making all of this up.

"When you were a kid, how many times did you walk into a room and the light bulb blew? How many times did you touch something electronic it would seem to 'malfunction'?" His questions made me think of the time that I was with Ingrid at the carnival and the crane game seemed to have the electricity go through it like it was shorting out and suddenly it occurred to me, that I seemed to go through a tone of light bulbs in every house that I lived it. I never paid any attention to it as a kid; I just thought that the company made lousy light bulbs. He continued to talk "Do you remember the night that you came to Storybrooke?"

"I was angry with Henry and slammed the car door. The transformer on the overhead power line blew…" I said with realization. I had always had magic.

The room was silent for a long minute. It was my father who finally broke that silence with one simple question, "what event did they reset?"

Mr. Gold picked up the medallion and tossed it back to my father, "drop this on the swan and find out."

I was suddenly full of so many questions, I didn't know where to begin, and I started throwing them at Gold in a rapid fire. "So what was the point in all of this now? What does any of this have to do with King George getting his son back? If we already reset time, why did pan have Mr. Cooper attack me and try to kill me? Were different decisions made? What does this mean for King George lying in that hospital on the respirator?" I noticed that during my barrage of questions he looked away causing me to have one additional question. "What did you get out of all of this?"

"Not telling."

"No! You don't get to get out of this that easily. You have manipulated my daughter's life since the minute she was conceived and you're not even going to have the decency to tell her why?" I tried to catch my father's arm to stop him, but he was too quick. He moved behind Mr. Gold's desk and pulled him from his chair. He had the older man pinned against the wall.

"Dad…stop! Let him go," I hurried behind my father. I put my hands on his upper arms trying to pull him off Gold. "Dad, he's not worth it. Just let him go."

"She's right," Gold squeaked out between labored breaths. "I'm not worth it. I have made your lives miserable for my own gain. And what do I have to show for it? I don't have Bae, I don't have Belle. I have nothing. So why don't you just do me a favor and just kill me? It's what you want to do anyway, so just go through with it."

My father loosened his grip letting the man fall from the wall that he was pinned against. "That would give you too much satisfaction. Wouldn't it?" It was clear that my father's statement was not a question. "Let's go, Emma." My father said as he turned my shoulders and pointed me toward the door. "We need to get JC to Storybrooke."

I turned and gave one last look to Mr. Gold he was standing with is back toward us staring out of his window. "Are you coming?" I asked. He turned just enough for me to see the profile of his face.

"It's not time, yet," he responded.

"I made a deal with you to take you back Storybrooke, and I always uphold my end of a deal. I'm going now. This is your chance, take it or leave it." We had been in this position before, but this time I was holding the ace.

"When the time is right, I will be in touch, Miss Swan." With that he turned back to the window.

"Suit yourself…" I said as I followed my father out of the office.

As we stood and waited for the elevator, my father turned to me, "you alright?" he asked.

I linked my arm in his, "yeah, I think I am. Let's get JC and go home."


	27. Chapter 27 - The Reset

**Sorry for the long wait, but here it is. There is only one more chapter left. It is mostly written so it should only be a couple of days before it is posted. As always, thank you so much to my loyal readers and reviewers. You make it all worth doing. And please keep the reviews coming. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think.**

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Chapter 27 – The Reset

Following our visit to Mr. Gold we went to see JC and we filled him in on all of the latest developments; everything from King George's status to the fact that we had already reset the event in time. JC's reaction to the news of already having reset the event was, well, odd. It didn't seem to faze him much. When I explained to him about the swan and the medallion, he simply asked, "then what's the point? If we already reset it, what's done is done. Why do we need to know what we reset?" I couldn't argue his logic because he was right, if we already reset it and events were altered, then those altered events led us where were today. But that didn't stop me from wanting to know what we actually did.

"But aren't you just the least bit curious?" I knew that I was.

"Sure, but think about it Emma, this life is all that we have ever known and if we did change something, would we know what it was before we changed it?"

"You and I may not, but maybe Dad and Mom would. Don't you think that Mr. Gold would know if we changed it? He is like 300 years old." I argued. I couldn't understand why he didn't care.

"Emma, maybe JC has a point…"

"What?" I spun on my father. He didn't want to know either?

"Hear me out, please?" He held his hands up in a way that made him look as if he were surrendering to me. I nodded and let him continue. "If we find out what was reset, there is the potential that is something that we don't want to know. Something that was altered that caused something bad to happen. And then you would feel upset and guilty. You would blame yourself for whatever happened. It just seems to me that this is a prime example of ignorance being bliss."

I looked away from my father; I didn't want to admit that he might be right. If I knew what was reset, I would drive myself crazy wondering about the 'what ifs'. But I had so many unanswered questions; starting with the importance of us resetting an event. I wanted to know why it was so important for us to bring the brother's bond back. I wanted to know why Gold had to manipulate King George into thinking that he would get his son back. None of this was making any sense to me, and I wanted it to in the worst way. I just couldn't sit back and take it all at face value.

In the end, we decided to table the discussion of the swan and the medallion and focus on more pertinent matters such as King George. We let JC make the call on whether or not he wanted to accompany us back to Storybrooke. Neither my father nor I wanted to force him into something that he might not necessarily be comfortable with, but he was just as much King George's family as we were, more so even. At least King George had raised his father from an infant. I had to say that I was surprised when he said that he would come, he said that we needed to face this decision as a family, and although I didn't disagree, I just didn't expect it. JC hadn't known him personally, only through stories; stories that did not paint a good picture of the man.

It was late when we finally pulled into Storybrooke after our day trip to Augusta. We both followed my father into the loft, good thing that we did, judging by the way my mother attacked him when he walked through the door. She would have pummeled over me to get to him had I entered first. "Charming! Are you ok?" She nearly yelled as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip. She kissed him heavy on the lips not giving him any time to answer her question. I couldn't help but to smile. It was awesome that they were so in love. I wasn't going to protest this time, the heart thing was too close of a call.

After what seemed like five straight minutes of kissing, while JC and I stood there and awkwardly watched, my mother finally pulled away from him. She turned her back to him to quickly face me while smacking the side of my head with her hand as she spun. "Ow…" I moaned as I put my hand up to my head to rub the spot of impact, "what the hell was that for?"

"For scaring the hell out of me with that text!" I think my chin fell to the floor when I heard her cuss. My mother never swore, ever, at least not that I remember hearing.

"Geez, smack him," I said pointing an accusing finger to my father, "I only did as I was told."

"Hey, I only told her to text you, I didn't tell her what to say in the text." I couldn't believe it, my own father was throwing me under the bus.

"What?" I threw my arms up in his direction, in a fashion that said 'I give up'. I didn't expect him to grab my wrist and pull me close to him with my back to his chest. He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug.

"Lighten up, kiddo, everything is fine." Then I felt him kiss the side of my head.

"Sorry, Mom," I said as I struggled to pull from my father's grip. He finally let me go when my mother cracked a smile and began to laugh.

"So what did you find out on your trip?" My mother asked as we all moved further into the apartment. I went directly for the kitchen; I needed a cup of hot chocolate with extra cinnamon.

"That JC and I already reset the event in time." I said nonchalantly, "Anyone else want a cup?" I quickly glanced upon the crowd as I pulled out the milk and cocoa. JC was the only one to raise his hand at the offer.

"What? How did that happen?" By the squeal in her voice, I couldn't tell if she was shocked or offended.

"Well, apparently this whole 'brothers bond' thing that we were supposed to rekindle" yes I used air quotes when I said brothers bond, "we did as kids; when we were living with Mr. Cooper." I continued to make my way around the kitchen while I made my aforementioned drink. I really didn't pay much attention to her reaction; until she asked the next question.

"Well..how do we find out what was reset?" I smiled. Finally, someone was on my side.

"Thank you!" I praised. She cut a sideways look to me that told me to elaborate. "If we place Coopers medallion on the swan that I gave you for your birthday it will show us what event was reset."

"Well let's do it. What are we waiting for?" I loved that she didn't even think twice about wanting to find out. She was just as curious as me.

I lifted my wooden spoon in the direction of JC and my father. "Those two don't want to," I said in a voice that sounded like a whining teenager. "Ignorance is bliss…or some stupid cliché like that…"

"We just thought that since it was already done, why put ourselves through the guilt or what ifs." David shrugged his shoulders as he tried to defend his opinion. I looked between him and JC as I waited for my cousin to weigh in on the subject. But he said nothing. Both men just made their way to sit on the stools at the island.

I fixed myself and JC a finished cup of hot chocolate as an awkward silence filled the room. It was obvious that we were all torn on what we should or should not do. I took a couple of sips of my drink before I made my final decision. I was doing it. I walked to the end table that held the crystal swan. I picked it up and stared at it for minute then carried it back to the kitchen. I set the swan down in the island the held my palm out toward my father, "the medallion?"

He sat there and stared at me with a disapproving look that only a father could muster. But I countered with a look of my own. It was the look that only a daughter who had her father wrapped around her finger could give. It was a look that he had no defense over and I knew it. Whenever I wanted something, all that I had to do was give him that look and he would cave. I remember the first day that I used it against my father to get my way; it was the day that the curse broke and Dr. Whale had whipped everyone into a frenzy. They formed a mob to go after Regina. Henry used the look on me as he asked for her protection and I mimicked it straight to my father, who immediately acquiesced to my silent plea.

I could tell by the look on his face that he was teetering on the line of giving me what I wanted. He didn't want to give in, but he always had a hard time saying no to his only daughter. So, I intensified the look a little bit; just enough to push him over the edge. I broke into a smile when I saw that it worked. He stood up from his seat and reached his hand deep into the pocket of his jeans. Seconds later he pulled the medallion from the pocket. He squeezed it in his hand for a beat before he finally placed it in my open palm.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked with a look of concern plastered all over this face.

This time I gave him a gentle but reassuring smile; one that said 'I know what I'm doing'. I looked from him to JC. JC was twisting his hands together in a nervous manner but nodded his approval. Finally I turned my look to my mother. She took a step closer to me and placed her hands on my shoulders, "whatever it is, we'll deal with it together, as a family. Okay?"

I reached my empty hand across my chest and laid it on top of hers to let her know that her reassurance meant a lot to me. I hesitated for only a second before I finally dropped the medallion onto the swan. I reached each of my hands across the island and took my father's in one hand and JC's in the other while my mother left her hands securely on my shoulders.

Suddenly the room when dark, but it felt like it was spinning. When I felt my mother's grip on my shoulders tighten I reacted by tightening my grip on David and JC's hands. A small white light soon appear from the island where the crystal swan had been sitting. It began to grow taking over the darkness. As the light brightened it became obvious that we were no longer sitting in our kitchen in Storybrooke. It just looked like a big empty space of white. The island disappeared and I dropped the hands that I was holding. My parents moved to either side of me and they each wrapped their hands around an arm in an effort to protect me. JC was standing next to my father; he too wrapped his hands around my father's forearm.

In what felt like a blast of energy the white space became an open field with a little cottage tucked only 50 yards away from the tree line. A barn sat between the cottage and the trees. To the front right of the cottage was a small animal pen that was holding some sheep in their respective place. A man stood near the pen tending to the flock. A lady stood on the cottage stoop holding an infant in her arms. Another man that I recognized, as none other than Rumplestiltskin, stood between the two.

I looked at each of my parents, first my mother who was mesmerized by the scene playing out in front of us and then to my father. "Father" I heard him whisper as he let go of his hold on my arm. My mother must have felt his release of my arm because she instantly pulled me closer to her and snaked her arm protectively around my waist. "Mother" he said a little louder as he slowly approached the people. It appeared that they could not see us, we could only see them.

"Where are we?" I asked my mother. I knew that it had to have been the Enchanted Forest but I didn't know the other two people with Rumple.

"The farm where your father grew up, those people are your grandparents." She responded.

"The baby…is that Dad?" I assumed that they baby was my father since Mom had said the two people were my grandparents. David had told me the story of how my grandfather had died when he was a little boy. I couldn't take my eyes off of my grandmother. I had always wanted to meet her but knew that I never would since she had died so that I may be born. My father always talked so fondly of her and my mother told me the story of King George's curse and what my grandmother had given up for them and me.

We listened to the conversation between Rumple and my grandparents. He was offering them the opportunity to keep their farm in exchange for a child. Their debts would be forgiven. I could tell that their decision had been a hard one to make. But they were promised that the baby would have a better life and they would also have a better life with no debts and only one child to feed. They were trying to give each of their children their best chance. I understood that decision all too well, and my parents did also. It seemed that giving up a child for said child's best chance had been a family tradition.

My grandfather had left the sheep to join my grandmother on the stoop. They stared into each other's eyes; a look that I recognized from my parents. They were having a silent conversation that ended with my grandmother handing the baby to my grandfather. She gently leaned down to give the baby a gentle kiss before she covered her face with her hands and retreated into the cottage.

My grandfather carried the swaddled babe to Rumple. He, too, leaned to give the baby a kiss on the head, "Goodbye, David" I heard him say before he handed the baby to Rumple. My knees buckled when I heard the words. He said David. We did change the event. Originally my father was given to King George instead of my uncle. Did that mean that James was originally my father or had my father always been David?

I quickly regained my footing and pulled away from my mother. I ran to my father and slipped my arms around his waist. He quickly reciprocated the action and pulled me close. He held me tighter than I had ever felt him hold me. I had to be honest, I wasn't letting go of him either and when Rumple disappeared with the baby the scene also disappeared. With another thunderous clap of energy we were back in the loft in the same positions that we started. No words needed to be said, we all knew what had happened. But again I hurried to my father and wrapped him a tight hug.

"Everything was changed…" I mumbled into his shoulder and I cried. He lifted his one hand to cradle the back of my head.

"Shh…" he comforted, "it's ok baby."

"Everything was changed," I said again through my tears, "everything was changed to ensure that you were my father; to make sure that I was the product of true love."

"Emma…" He pushed me away from his body but still held onto my shoulders, "Emma…listen to me. I have always been your father. James was never your father. The only thing that changed was by whom I was raised. In both scenarios, I still met your mother and you have always been our child. Do you understand me?"

"How…How do you know?" I stuttered out. I was trying hard to catch my breath and not hiccup.

"Because, you are here, sweetheart," he stopped my panic with those words. What did he mean by that statement, "Because you are here," he pulled me close again and cradled my head with his hand. "Changing this event didn't change who you are. If it had, you would have known. If my brother had, at any time, been your father then you would have suddenly become a completely different person. And that didn't happen, did it?"

I thought about what he was saying before I answered. I tried to remember if my life made a sudden change when JC and I became close. "No," I shook my head but I still left my face buried in his chest, "not that I remember."

"Exactly, it would have been too drastic of a change too fast for you not to remember. You always have been and always will be my daughter. Do you understand?"

What my father was saying made perfect sense. It was irrational of me to think that James would have been my father. My mother was a bandit on the run; it was perfectly feasible that she would have met my father regardless of who he was raised by. This time I nodded, but still refused to let him go. My mother soon joined us and he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into our group hug.

After a couple of minutes I heard JC finally speak, "are you ok, Emma?" his state of shock must have finally worn off.

I chuckled as I pulled away from parents, "Yeah…Yeah…what about you? I imagine that was your first experience with magic?" His eyes were wide and he had a tight drip on the counter top.

"Yeah…" he nodded his head and let go of a ragged breath. "Yeah…I'm ok. A bit tired, though." I looked at the clock; it was almost 4:00 am.

"Yeah, I think we all are," my mother replied, "why don't we go to bed. We can talk about this in the morning."

"Yes, you two need to rest. We need to go to the hospital tomorrow and decide what to do about King George," my father agreed.

My mother grabbed JC's hand and pulled him from room as she mumbled something about getting him set up to sleep on the couch and getting him some blankets. I looked over to my father; he smiled at me and pulled me into another tight hug, "Always my daughter, my baby. Got it? Don't you ever doubt that, okay?" I nodded my head. "I love you."

"I love you to, Dad." I pulled away and he planted a kiss on my forehead. "Good night."

"Good night, sweetheart." I could feel his eyes on me as I exited up the metal staircase. When I reached the top, I looked down on him and smiled. "Goodnight, Dad." I said again but more to myself then to him.

After I changed my clothes, I crawled under the covers of my bed. As I laid on my back I thought about the scene that we had just witnessed and about the fact that my father never doubted for a second that I was his child. His thoughts never wavered to the thought that James may have been my father at one point. I wondered why my thoughts had immediately gone to questioning my paternity. But what was even more eye opening for me was how distraught I was when I thought that there was a chance that David was not my father; to the point that I held on to him for all that I was worth. I rolled over and I fell asleep with a smile on my face as I thought about how much my parents actually meant to me.


	28. Chapter 28 - Waking Up

Here it is, the final chapter. Hopefully you all like it. A special thank you to all of my loyal readers and reviewers! Without you I wouldn't have had the encouragement to write the whole thing. You guys are awesome! Now I can focus on my other story, Prince Charmings Daughter, if you haven't read it and you liked this story, check it out! Anyway enjoy, and let me know what you think. Did you see this coming? Thank you again. -Jenn

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Chapter 28 - Waking Up

My eyes were closed but I heard the beeping in my room**.** It was a faint sound that seemed to beep with every passing second, it sounded like a heart monitor.. For some reason, my body hurt, but I didn't know why. I moaned as I tried to move, even opening my eyes hurt.

"Emma?" I heard my mother's voice, but it sounded like it was full of worry. Why was it so damn hard to open my eyes?

"Mom?" I croaked out barely above a whisper, my throat hurt and it was dry.

"David, go get the doctor." Doctor…Did my mom really say that? I tried to open my eyes again, this time I succeeded but everything was blurry. I was able to make out the shape of my father leaving my room.

"Mom?" I tried again. This time it was a little more audible.

"Shh…It's ok, honey. Dad is getting Dr. Whale." I tried to sit up. I felt her hands slip under my arms to help me. Things were starting to become less fuzzy.

"The nurse is paging him," my father said as he reentered the room. "Hey kiddo, you gave us quite a scare there…"

"Scare? What? What happened?" I asked as I looked around the room. I only saw my parents. "Where's? Uh…Where's JC?"

"Emma, honey, you were in a car accident. You've been sedated for a couple of days to let your injuries heal. Doctor Whale will be in soon," my mother explained. I felt her take my hand, the one without the IV needle stuck into it, into hers as she began to rub small circles on the back of it.

"Where's JC?" I asked again. I looked over to my father who put his eyebrows together in confusion.

"Emma, who is JC?" he asked as he reached up to feel my forehead with the back of his hand.

I pushed his hand away from head. "JC…my foster brother… you're nephew? James' son?" I watched as my parents looked at each other. I could tell what they were thinking by the expressions on their faces. How could they not know him?

"Honey, we don't know anyone named JC. James never had a son." It was my turned to look confused. But I just put my head back in frustration and waited for Dr. Whale to arrive. I didn't have to wait long. It was only minutes before he came into my room with my chart in his hands.

"Well, Ms. Swan, welcome back. How are you feeling?" he asked without looked up from the clipboard.

"Like I was hit by a truck," I replied sarcastically.

"Well, no surprise there, since you were hit by a truck." He pulled his pen from his breast pocket and began to write some things down.

"My bug…" I looked to my Dad. That car meant the world to me, I couldn't take the thought of it possibly being totalled.

"Is fine," he answered, "you were in the cruiser."

I reached up and rubbed my eyes. It was beginning to come back to me. "I was going on a call; the guy ran the stop sign." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes, you were pretty banged up. A concussion, two broken ribs, and we had to remove your spleen. Some bumps and bruises, but you'll make a full recovery." Whale explained. "If everything checks out, you should be able to go home in a day or two. We certainly do not want to keep you here any longer than necessary."

"Thank you," I said as I watched him leave. I looked to my parents who were now sitting next to my bed. "Sorry to put you through all of that."

"No reason to be sorry, we're just glad that you're ok. It would have killed us if we lost you. You know that right?"

I smiled at my dad's words. "Yeah, I know."

"So, tell us about this JC…" my mother started. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back onto my pillow.

"One question first…" They both nodded, "is King George in the hospital on life support because he shot himself?" I asked.

"Ah…nooo." My father answered slowly dragging out the words. "Emma, where is all of this coming from? JC? King George?"

"I guess it was all a dream." I put my hand up to rub my forehead just above my right eye. My head was killing me. At least the lights were low. But with the concussion, broken ribs, and waking up to find that what my mind thought was real was actually a sedation induced dream I didn't know whether to laugh or cry in frustration.

"A dream? Why don't you tell us about it…" It seemed that I had piqued my mother's curiosity. Or she just wanted to keep me talking so that I didn't fall back to sleep. "I'm guessing that's where JC is coming into play?"

"JC was my foster brother, when I was sixteen. It was the last home that I was placed in before I ran away from the system. I guess I manifested him as my cousin in this dream."

"Well, then," my dad said as he got more comfortable in his chair, "by all means tell us about him and your dream."

I smiled at both of my parents; they were so interested in my dream. And, despite my complete lack of energy to do anything, I was willing to tell them about it. I slowly told them every detail. The conversation was really zapping any energy that I could find, but I told them everything from JC showing up to warn me about Mr. Cooper, to Peter Pan, to resetting an event in time. They sat and listened intently to every word.

"Wow…" my mother commented when I was finished.

"Yeah," my father agreed. "It sounds like your subconscious was doing double duty while your body was trying to heal."

"Mom! You're ok!" Henry shouted as he ran into my room. He came straight to my bed and wrapped me in a hug. I looked at the clock that was hanging on the wall. It was 3:15 pm, Henry must have came straight to the hospital after school.

"Yeah, Kid! A little sore, but I'm ok." I replied.

"Be careful, Henry, she's still in a lot pain, she's not completely healed." Ah, my over protective mother. I loved it.

"I'm ok kid, but your gram is right, I'm still pretty sore."

"I'm just glad that you're ok." He said as he settled himself on the foot of my bed.

"I think that seems to be the general consensus around here today." I gave him a smile then looked to my parents. I gave them same smile. "I'll be ok and back to work before you know it."

"Ahem…" I slunk into my bed a little refusing to make eye contact when I heard my father clear his voice. "You will go back to work, when I say you're ready to go back." I knew that was coming, but my stubborn streak took over.

"What?" I decided to argue. "You know as well as I do that there is a ton of work that needs to be done."

"And it can wait until you can at least move without wincing in pain." He stood next to my bed with his arms crossed letting every bit of his parental authority show. "I've had broken ribs, Emma. Every move is going to be excruciating for the next two weeks at least. You are going to need to be on pain meds and that means staying at home and resting."

"Yeah, well, I've had broken ribs before too, and I was able to work through it then, I'll be able to work through it now."

"Before, you weren't living with your father who would have made sure that you followed the Doctor's orders. You are not going back to work until Dr. Whale clears you. End of discussion, Emma." I held my father's stare with my own as I tried to come up with a counter argument. I wasn't ready to give in just yet. I just needed another plan of attack.

"Henry?" I turned the attention to my son when I saw him shift from the corner of my eye, "Are you hungry?"

"No," he answered incorrectly.

"Dad, can you take Henry to get something to eat?" I suggested as I completely ignored my son's response. I thought that if I could get my father to leave for a couple of minutes that would give me enough time to rebuild my argument.

"The kid just said that he wasn't hungry…" my father protested.

"He's a kid; he doesn't know what he wants" or what I wanted for that matter.

"I'll take him," my mother spoke up. She was definitely not the person that I wanted to leave the room. "Come on, Henry. Let's go to the gift shop. We'll see if we can find a magazine or something for your mom while she and grandpa have a little chat." No, no, no; wrong parent was leaving the room.

Henry jumped off of my bed as my mother walked toward him. She put her arm around his shoulders to lead him out of the room, "Is mom in trouble with grandpa?" I heard him ask her.

"Probably," was my mother's only response to the boy. I rolled my eyes (which was a mistake with a concussion) and tried very hard to not look at my father whose paternal stance next to my bed had not changed.

"Am I?" I asked. There was a hint of attitude in my voice as I crossed my arms and still did not look at him.

He didn't answer right away; he just took a deep breath and let it out again. "No, of course not," he finally said as he pulled a chair close to my bed and sat in it. "I just don't want you to unnecessarily set back your recovery because you want to go back to work before your body is ready. Forgive me for looking out for the well being of my only daughter." That was when I finally looked at him, his strong paternal look faded to a concern. How could I argue with him now?

"Thank you," I said as I reached for his hand, "sometimes it's hard for me open myself up to the fact that I have parents who are looking out for me. Hold habits, you know?"

He gave me a smile, and a wink, "I know kiddo."

"And…I think on some subconscious level, I'm trying to make up for my teenage years. You know the arguing and all. Oh wouldn't you have had fun…" I let the mischievous tone creep into the statement.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that." He gently squeezed the hand that he was holding as he pushed a strand of hair from my eyes with the other hand. "You just rest now, okay?"I nodded to his request as I put my head back and closed my eyes. It felt so good to know that I had finally had the life that I had always dreamed of having.

Two days later, I was release from the hospital with explicit instructions to rest, no heavy lifting, and overall listen to my parents. I think Dad coerced Dr. Whale into adding that little stipulation. And after two weeks of going stir crazy in the loft with very over protective parents, I was finally to go back to work on desk duty. But it was okay, things were slowly going back to normal. And as I thought about, I wouldn't have it any other way. I had my mom, my dad, and my son all of whom I loved and they over me unconditionally. Yeah, my life turned out pretty good!


	29. Authors Note: Please skip

Please skip to the next Chapter...the Epilogue. I wanted to make sure that it looked like a new chapter was out so that people who have chosen notifications, received them.


	30. Epilogue - Posted 922015

**Ok...well...I recently re-read this story and as I was finishing up, I realized that I never answered what happened to JC...if anything. So I sat down and wrote the epilogue. If anyone is still interested in this story...awesome. Happy reading. But hopefully this will tie things up a little better for everyone.**

**Enjoy!**

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Epilogue

I smelled the scent of his cologne as he entered the room. It had been years since I had remembered having that scent in my nose, but I recognized it immediately. I was too tired and sore to open my eyes, but I could tell that he made his way to the chair that was next to my bed, the one that my father vacated less than an hour ago. I let him sit there for a minute while I took in the smell. It was an aroma that gave me a small sense of security, as I remembered the times that he would comfort me in times of turmoil.

"Have you been sneaking in here every night?" I weakly asked, still refusing to open my eyes or even move for that matter. Everything hurt from my toes to my head. The pain medication was taking the edge off for the most part, but still, so much of my body just ached.

I heard him let out a muffled chuckle, "Yeah," he finally admitted. "I waited until they would leave then I would come in to sit with you for a while." His voice was barely above a whisper, like he was still trying to hide his presence.

"How did you know?" There was more to that question than it seemed, and he knew it. It ranged everywhere from how did you know where to find me to how did you know when to come.

"I've been watching you for a while now, kid. You think that you could get rid of me that easily?" I attempted to smile at the nickname. Just like I call Henry 'kid', I never realized where I picked up the habit until now. Yeah we were both kids when we lived together, but he always called me kid, even though I was only a couple of years younger than him and it had been such a long time since I had heard him called me that.

I finally moved my head, slowly, to his direction. I opened my eyes to slits just wide enough to see him leaning back in his chair with his knees spread apart. He rested his elbow on the arm of the chair making his hand the perfect height to hold his head up as he leaned. "So my dream…"

He laughed again, interrupting my thoughts. "Yeah...I was telling you stories."

"Just like always," I managed a small smile, but it hurt.

"Yeah, just like always." He repeated. "You always loved my stories."

"You told the best stories. Imagine my surprise to learn that they were real. How long have you known?" I asked. Again it was a loaded question. And this time he needed to clarify which to address first. I could tell that he wanted to give me all of the answers that I desired; he just didn't know where to start.

"How long have I known…" he pulled on the word 'known' for a bit before he continued, "…that you were in Storybrooke? That you found your parents? Or that I was your cousin?"

"Yes." I replied. I wanted the answers to all of those questions and more.

"A while," was his response. "Long enough to know who you were and what you were destined to become. It was hard to not tell you the truth, but I knew that you wouldn't believe me. You would chalk it up to being one of my stories to make you feel better. It was something that you had to find out on your own."

"How did you find out?" I was so curious. How did he know who I was before I did?

"My mother," he paused for a moment. He seemed like he was looking for the best way to tell me, "she never really told me how she knew, but she always said that you looked like him. It wasn't until the day that she told me who my father was, that I figured out who 'him' really was."

"Have you talked to them?" my mind was going in a million different directions. I my thoughts felt like a ping pong ball that fell from the table and was bouncing around aimlessly.

"You mean your parents?" I weakly nodded a response, "I haven't. They don't know that I'm here."

"Oh, they know." There was no way that they didn't. Everybody knows everything in a small town, especially if you were once the reigning monarch of their former land and your daughter is the savior.

"What makes you so sure?" I had to laugh; well I tried to laugh since even taking a shallow breath was a chore. But he was always the older brother questioning the little sister.

"Are you kidding? If you've been watching me, then you know who they are, which means that you know that 90% of this town is loyal to them. I can guarantee that they knew that you were here the first time that you walked through the hospital door and they knew that you were in my room the minute that you peered in to see me in a coma. What I don't get is why they didn't confront you? Or why my father denied you being here when I questioned where you were?"

"Are you telling me that they are suspicious of new people?"

"No, no. Just insanely over-protective," I knew what he was thinking. That I went from one extreme of having no one to the other extreme of having two people who loved me so much that it hurt. "So, these stories," yeah we needed to get back on topic. "How much was real and how much did I make up while I was in my coma?"

"I'll tell you what, you ask, I'll answer. How does that sou…?" He didn't even get the thought out of his mouth before I cut him off with my first question.

"Mr. Cooper?" That was all that I needed to say, he knew what I wanted to know.

"He's gone."

"Gone…as…in…"

"He died."

"Are you sure?" I needed to be sure. I needed to know that he was not going to come after me. Because if JC could find me, then so could he.

"Have I ever lied to you, kid?" I gently shook my head from left to right to answer his question. "He did his time in prison, and then died about two years ago from a heart attack. I even went to the funeral. Just to make sure," he winked.

"And your mom?" I wanted to know about her. She was always so kind. I could never figure out why she stayed with that man. Until I met Henry, then I understood. She stayed so that she could be there to protect him, or us.

I saw a sad smile cross his face. "She passed too…complications from alcohol poisoning. Everything was just too much for her. She turned to the bottle and never turned back."

"JC, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. She's better now. And if she knew that you found them and the way that you turned out, she would be so proud. I know that I am."

"I know that we are too…" I watched as JC's head shot a look to the door of my hospital room. My reaction was a little slower but the same nonetheless.

"Mom, Dad. What are you doing here?" I asked as I tried to push myself up a little on my bed. Before I knew it, both my Dad and JC were by my side helping me to my goal.

"Well, since you were awake, we wanted to be here when he made his stop tonight," my mother explained referring to JC.

"See," I said to JC, "I told you that they knew." He shot me smirk as he extended a hand to my father and then to my mother introducing himself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm…"

"The infamous JC…" my father finished for him as he graciously accepted his offered hand and shook it.

"Yeah…" he looked over to me, "I guess you could say that."

"So you are my brother's son?" I watched as my father eyed my friend up and down, drinking in every bit of his looks and demeanor. With both of them in the room, I could now see the resemblance myself. And I guess that I could now see why JC's mother knew. She saw the resemblance too, my blond hair and my tact. She had known my father's twin brother intimately, call it a sixth sense or whatever, the long and the short of it is that she just knew.

"How…How'd you know?" Again JC looked to me.

"Did I not explain this to you once already?" Even in my weakened state my sarcasm had not escaped me.

"Yes," He finally looked back to David. "James was my father; unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet him."

"Well, neither have I. But I'm told that I do a spot on impression of him."

"Dad, that was bad, even for you…" He lifted his eyebrows as a way to shrug off his bad joke. He moved to sit at the foot of my bed which allowed my mother to move to my side. He lovingly rubbed his hand up and down the side of my leg; an action that I would have flinched away from in the not so distant past.

My mother was quick to push my hair behind my ear as she sat down on the side of my bed next to my arm. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

"Sore, but every minute gets a little better." She smiled at me as she reached up and placed the back of her hand to my forehead. "Mom, I'm in the hospital, they are monitoring me." I said as I pushed her hand away.

"Pardon me for being concerned for my daughter's well being." We both looked over to JC when we heard him release a definite laugh. "And you," with a finger pointed in his direction she turned her motherly voice to JC. "Welcome to the family," her voice was softened and welcoming. "I'm hoping that we get to see a lot more of you, rather than you sneaking around."

"I think that you can count on that…" he answered. "Emma and I have a lot of catching up to do."

"I for one…want to hear these stories that my nephew has been telling my daughter." David's voice loomed over the room as he opened the new chapter in our lives with one simple sentence.

"I'd be happy to oblige." JC responded with a smile.

We spent the rest of the evening filling my parents in on the time that JC and I had spent together. We shared so many of the good times that JC and I had as kids. I really didn't want them to hear all of the bad stuff at once. They needed to be eased into that part of my life. But I could tell that it made them feel a little better about our situation by knowing that for a small part of my impressionable life I had one actual family member close to me; a sheep that had made his way back to the flock.

I watched my parents interact with my foster brother/cousin. They were so accepting of him, and thankful. They were thankful of what he did for me. It was good for them to know that everything wasn't all bad. Sure the lion's share of my life was not good, but it wasn't all bad either. And now I had my family. If I have heard my Dad say it once, then I've heard him say it a hundred times, "In this family, we always find each other." And that is exactly what we did.

-The End.


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